HAITI FACT SHEET ** Learn More HAITI in Brief: An Historical Overview Agroforestry and sustainable resource conservation in Haiti: A Case Study Haiti, already the most economically impoverished country in the Western hemisphere, has sunk deeper and deeper into misery over the past decade according to every social and economic indicator.  It is now ranked as the fourth poorest, the third hungriest, and the most water poor country among all the nations of the world. GENERAL DESCRIPTIVE DATA POPULATION:  8.1 million (20% urban, 80% rural) CAPITAL: Port au prince (pop. 1.5 million) GROWTH RATE: 1.7 % TOTAL AREA 10,714square miles (slightly smaller than Maryland) CURRENCY:  US $1 = 25 gourdes (2002) US $1 = 42 gourdes (2003) LANGUAGES: Kreyol (90%) and French (10%) LITERACY:  45% (48% men, 42% women) LIFE EXPECTANCY: (49.5 men, 53.9 women) Only 41% of urban and 29% or rural households in Haiti have “improved” access to water for drinking (sources protected from contamination).  Access to sanitation is available to only 43% of the urban population and 21% of the rural population.  About 75% of the population lives in “misery”, spending about 3/4 of all income on food.  Nearly 70% of all Haitians depend on extremely small-scale, subsistence agriculture. ECONOMIC DATA GDP: US $3.5 billion GDP GROWTH: - 1.7% (negative!) UNEMPLOYMENT: 66%’ EXTERNAL DEBT: US $2 billion INFLATION: 16-18% ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES By every measure people of Haiti are living in a state of profound ecological crisis that is either little-noticed or completely ignored by world leaders including its near neighbor, the United States. Less than 1% of Haiti remains forested, having lost more than 90% of its tree cover in the last 50 years.  The UN calls Haiti a “silent emergency”. Crop harvests are shrinking, topsoil is disappearing, malnutrition rates are growing (more than 33% of all Haitian children are malnourished), and preventable, infectious diseases are gaining ground. For more information read Haiti Case Study. Data contained in this fact sheet are derived from multiple sources including the CIA World Fact Book, World Bank Annual Reports, UN reports, IMF Data Sheets, the Canadian Foreign Council Office, and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel Special Report: “Haiti, the Eroding Nation”.