Uruguay

country paper

Table of contents

Introduction.......................................................................................................................3
Literature survey................................................................................................................4
Country analysis................................................................................................................7
Comparisons....................................................................................................................12
Conclusions.....................................................................................................................15
References.......................................................................................................................16

Introduction
Like every Latin American country, Uruguay has a colonial past. The capital,
Montevideo, was founded by the Spanish in 1726 as a military base and became an
important commercial center. After been annexed to Brazil, Uruguay claimed its
independence in 1825, but it could reach it just in 1828, after three years struggle.
Betweeen 1839 and 1852 a civil war has occurred; internal and external conflicts
continued almost untill the 20th century.
In the earlier decades of 1900 the conditions for a modern political and economic
development have been established, thanks to Jos Batlle y Ordez, who was president
between 1903 and 1907 and again between 1911 and 1915. His administration launched
widespread political, social and economic reforms that improved the standard of living
of people from different points of view.
In the last part of 50s, the economic problems, due to global inflection of agriculture
product demand, led to social instability and tension, that culminated in urban and civil
guerrillas led by Tupamaros, an extreme left organization, whom intent was to reach a
more social equality.
The army took the control of the situation with a military coup in 1973 and it keep the
power untill 1984, when democratic elections occurred and the civilian rule was
restored.
The following governments had been engaged in the democratization process of the
country and brought the economy to a relatively fast growth.
Today Uruguay's political and labor conditions are among the freest in the continent.

Literature survey
According to CIA survey "Uruguay rates high for most development indicators and is
known for its secularism, liberal, social laws and well-developed social security, health
and educational system." The entire population has access to clean water. Thanks to
education policies the country reached high levels of literacy and educational
attainment. However state investment's return in human capital diminished, because of
emigration of a portion of high educated and skilled people. Even if 18% of population
lives and works abroad, remittances represent just 1% of national GDP. This
phenomenon, with the low birth rate, is leading to an aging of Uruguay's population. It
must be emphasized that emigration declined, comparing with the past. In fact in the
second part of 20th century and the early years of 21th century there has been different
periods of mass migration: the first in the 1960s (primarly in Argentina and Brazil), then
in the 1980s, and again in 2002. In the last decade 70% of emigrants choosed USA and
Spain as destinations.
Uruguay has a free market economy, based on agricultural product export, skilled work
force and high levels of social spending. Because of a export-based economy Uruguay
showed high instability in the last years: in the period 2004-2008 the GDP growth
average has been 8% per year, but in 2008-2009 has fallen to 2.6%. Through investment
and public expenditure the GDP growth reached 8.9% in 2010, but decreased again in
2012, because of a slowdown in the global economy and especially in its main trade
partners, Argentina and Brazil. Since 2006 the amount of export with Mercosur
increased by 70% and by 100% with the world (CIA data).
According World Bank Uruguay shows a relatively high equality in income distribution,
that leads to social and political stability. This equality is observable in the universal
access to basic goods and services, such as healthcare, potable water, electricity and
education. Despite the global crisis and the fluctuation of the national GDP, the labor
market recorded in 2012 historically low unemployment levels (6,1%). The economic
growth, combined with adequate social policies, led to a reduction of poverty.
The country, in order to not depend on few countries' import, managed to diversify
export markets. The public debt-GDP ratio declined, even if debt remains at relatively
high levels. Another issue is inflation, due to a strong internal demand.

According to WB advices the priority are to achieve higher investment levels, improve
economy competitiveness (WB site data).
According the United Nations Development Program, Uruguay is today the 51 th in the
rank of countries by Human Development Index. HDI value for 2012 was 0.792, while
in 1980 was 0.664. It means that the increase has been 19%. Uruguay's HDI is above the
HDI average of Latin America and Caribbean countries of 0.741.
Life expectancy at birth is 77.2, expected years of schooling are 15.5, and GNI per
capita (2005 PPP) is 13,333 $.
Like all averages, HDI masks the inequality across of the population. For this reason has
been introduced in 2010 the Inequality Adjusted HDI, which consider the inequality
reducing everyone of the three dimension's average value according to the level of
inequality. "The loss in potential human development due to inequality is given by the
difference between the HDI and the Inequality Adjusted HDI, and can be expressed as a
percentage" (Human Development Report 2013). The value, adjusted by inequality is
0.662; it means a loss of 16.4%. The main source of inequality is the difference among
incomes.
Another interested aspect analyzed by the UNDP is the gender inequality. The Gender
Inequality Index (GII) estimates the gender-based inequality through three dimension:
reproductive health, empowerment and economic activity. The GII shows the loss of
human development due to the gender inequality. In 2012 Uruguay ranked 69 out of 148
countries with a GII value of 0.367. In Uruguay 12.3% of parlament members are
women, 50.6% of women have a secondary or higher school graduation, for every
100,000 live births 29 women die for causes related to pregnancy and the adolescent
fertility rate is 59 births per 1000 live birth. Female participation to the labour market is
55.6%. It has to be pointed out that the Uruguay's GII value is below the Latin America
and Caribbean average (0.419).
Another important index used by the UNDP is the Multidimensional Poverty Index
(MPI). The Uruguay MPI, based on survey data collected in 2002-2003, shows a
multidimensional poverty percentage of 1.7%. It means that 1.7% of population lives in
conditions of deprivations in standard of living, education and health. But if we
compare the MPI with the percentage of people that lives below the poverty line (0.2%)
and the percentage of vulnerable to poverty people (0.1%), we can see that it is 1.4%

higher. This means that even people above the poverty line can still suffer different
kinds of deprivation in health, education or standard of living. The main factor that
contributes to multidimensional poverty is the low level of education.
The education issue has been pointed out from a OECD survey. Even if universal
primary education was achieved, higher levels' enrollment decreases. Just 2.8% of GDP
is invested in education, but Uruguay is one of the few Latin America countries in
which education is largely publicly funded.
Another important aspect is the business and economic freedom, that can give an idea
about the future development perspectives. The Heritage foundation (a research and
education institution) states that Uruguay is the 36th freest world economy, the 4th in
Latin America. This index has been made of four main pillars, consideres keys of the
economic freedom: rule of law, that considers property rights and corruption level,
limited government, that considers government spending and fiscal freedom, regulatory
efficiency, that regards business freedom, labor freedom and monetary freedom, and
open markets, that treat financial freedom, investment freedom and trade freedom.
According the survey, Uruguay performs competitively in all the section and it is above
the regional average (59.4).

HDI trend from 1980 to present (UNDP site)

Country analysis
Population data
In 2011 the total population amount was 3,286,314, the 134 th world's biggest population.
The 40,14% is concentrated in Montevideo. Population density is 18,8 inhab/km.
This is the age and sex structure of Uruguay population (CIA data). Looking the shape
of the population pyramid it's possible to understand the last decades' population growth
rate. The upper part shows that in the past there has been a growth, but not so fast. The
first three lines of the pyramid show that now the growth rate is contracting. The
population growth rate in 2012 was 0.35, but CIA experts estimated that in 2013 it will
decrease to 0.25.

The population structure gives important informations and it has fundamental effects on
the country's economic development. The dependency ratio, the relation between
unproductive people (0-14 age and 65+ age) and productive people (15-64 age) is
55.3%. The infant mortality shows a steady decrease and in 2012 has been 12.12
deaths/1,000 live birth. The total fertility rate in 2012 has been 1,9664.
The major reason of the low population growth rate is the low birth rate, but also
emigrations contributed to the inhibition of population growth.
About the ethnic composition Uruguay population is quite homogeneous: 88% of
population is white, 8% metsizo and 4% black.
The urban population in 2010 was 92% of total and the urbanization rate estimated for
2010-2015 is 0.4%. The high level of urbanization and the relatively low level of ruralto-urban migration reveals that the urbanization process had passed his peak time ago.
Income distribution and poverty data
The Uruguay's total GDP, corrected by PPP is 49.059 billion dollars. The GNI is 52.864
billion. The difference between GNI and GDP shows the amount of remittances, the
total amount of income produced by residents of the country that work abroad. The GNI
per capita is around 15 thousand $. The main economic sector is services (70% of
GDP), then industry (21,6% of GDP) and agriculture represents the 8.2% of GDP.
The size distribution of income shows a medium-high level of inequality:
1st quintile earns 4.9% of income;
2nd quintile earns 9% of income;
3rd quintile earns 13.7% of income;
4th quintile earns 21.5% of income;
5th quintile earns 50.9% of income.
The Gini coefficient, according to World Bank is 45.3 (2010); Uruguay is the 40 th most
inequal country in the world. The percentage of people living in condition of extreme
poverty (1.25 $ per day) is 0.2%, while the percentage of people living in a condition of
absolute poverty (2 $ per day) is 1,2% (World Bank data). We can observe that despite
the relatively high level of inequality, the poverty is not a pervasive phenomenon.

Health data
We saw that the life expectancy is quite high (77 years). The health expenditure in 2011
was the 8% of the GDP, and it has been steady in the last years. The expenditure per
capita has been 1,105 thousand $ and there has been an increase in the last years. The
67.6% of the total health expenditure is public and it increased in the last period. The
percentage of population with access to improved sanitation facilities is 99%. The 100%
of population has access to drinkable water. There are not big problems about deseases
like tubercolosis or HIV, because the incidence is really low. It has to be pointed out that
there are still problem such as maternal mortality (29/100,00 live births) and child
malnutrition (4.5% of children below 5 years). The UNDP health index is 0.902,
showing a costant increasement.

Education data
The quality of Uruguay education has been rated high. However there are some
problems as the lack of instructional material, especially in the rural areas, while the
urban schools had experienced problems of overcrowding. All levels of education are
free, but for different reasons attend university can not be possible for low-income
households: there is just one public university, in Montevideo, and attend university
involves several costs.
The literacy rate is 98%. The education expenditure amount in 2006 was 2.9% of GDP;
it can be considered low, but it showed an increasing in the last years. Uruguay achieved
from several years universal primary education, but 2010 data shows that 10% of kids
do not enroll secondary school. The school life expectancy is 16 years, among the
highest in Latin America. The mean years of schooling of adults (25+) is 8.5. It means
that in just one generation the school life expectancy doubled. The combined groos
enrollment in education (the percentage of students enrolled in primary, secondary and
tertiary level of education) is 89%. The education index, processed by the UNDP as a
results of all index, is 0.764.
Gender inequality
The female labor participation rate is 56%, while the male labor participation rate is
77%. The unemployment rate is 7.7% for women and 4.5% for men. The unemployment
rate of youth female (15-24) is 21.7%, while for youth male is 14.4%. The ratio female
to male labor participacion is however above the Latin America average.
The female literacy rate is 99% and the male literacy rate is 98%. In 2009 the number of
female primary-school-age children not enrolled in primary school were 1,270, while
male primary-school-age children not enrolled were 352. The ratio of female to male
primary school enrollment is 97%. The percentage of progression to secondary school is
86% for female and 74% for male. The ratio of female to male secondary school
enrollment is 114% and the same ratio for tertiary school is 173% (2009 data).
Even if women are still disadvantaged in the work, it seems that they are the most
educated and skilled portion of the society.
The contraceptive prevalence rate is 77%. The adolescent fertility rate is still high if
compared to the one of high income countries, (59 per 1000 women ages 15-59), but

below the Latin America average. The prevalence of HIV among women is 0.2%, while
the prevalence of HIV among men is 0.4%. According to the NGO Mulabi the high
maternal mortality is due to illegal and unsafe abortion. Abortion was illegal untill 2012,
but it became possible, after a long period of struggle. Uruguay signed and ratified the
CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discriminations Against
Women), but there is a poor knowledge of this convention among women and civil
society, and it's practically not applied by magistrates. There are still discriminatory
provision in the Civil and Penal code, but big steps have been made in the last years:
from aprile of 2013 the minimum age of marriage has been raised to 16, while before
was 12 for women and 14 for men. In 2006 the article 116 of the Penal Code and 23 of
the Code of Criminal Procedure, which provided that charges for a crime of rape be
withdrawn if the perpetrator married the victim, were abolished.
The proportion of seats held by women in the national parlament is now 12%. The
women participation to political life and managerial employment is still low, but big
efforts have been made, through empowerment projects.

Comparisons: Uruguay, Turkey and Italy

Turkey and Uruguay have several common features, even if Uruguay is in the highhuman-developed countries group and Turkey is in the medium-developed-countries
group. Turkey's HDI is 0.722, 0.07 less than Uruguay, ranking as 90 th country for human
development. Italy's HDI is 0.881 ranking as the 25 th country for human development,
and it's in the same group of Uruguay.

Uruguay's HDI composition

Turkey's HDI composition

Italy'd HDI composition

Turkey's population is 74,508,000 million, with 92 inhab/km. The 72.5% of population

lives in urban areas. Turkey dependency ratio is 49.3%, lower than Uruguay's and the
population grow rate is 1.16%, almost five times higher that Uruguay's. Italy population
is 60,964, million, with a density of 200 inhab/km and the 68.5% of population live in
urban areas. The italian dependency ratio 54.3 and it means that Italy has the most aged
population. The population growth rate is 0.35, few higher than Uruguay.
About income Turkey has a few higher income per capita and a lower level of
inequality. The income earned by the poorest quintile is 5.5%, the second quintile earns
10,6% of income, the third earns 15.6%, the percentage of income earned by the fourth
quintile is 22,4% and the highest quintile earns the 46%. The Gini coefficient is 40.2. It
has to be pointed out that in the last years the inequality increased. The inequalityadjusted HDI value is 0.560. The main sources of inequality are income and education.
Poverty in Turkey is a more widespread phenomenon: the percentage of people living
on less than 1.25$ per day is 1.3%, while 4.7% of people lives on less than 2$ per day;
and in the last years these percentage showed a steady increasement. Italy's income per
capita is the double of Turkey's and Uruguay's: 26,158$. The Gini coefficient is 31.9.
The inequality-adjusted HDI value is 0.766 and the main sources of inequality comes,
like Turkey, from income and education.
The health index is lower in Turkey (0.855). The percentage of GDP spent for health is
5.1%, just 0.5% lower than Uruguay's expenditure. Life expectancy in Turkey is 3 years
lower. Child mortality is higher in Turkey (18/1,000).
The Italy's health index is the higher: 0.977; the percentage of GDP spent for health is
7.4%. Life expectancy is 82 years. Child mortality is the lowest (4/1,000).
The education index in Turkey is 0.608, lower than Uruguay's (0.764). The percentage
of GDP spent for education is the same in both countries (2.9%). Literacy rate in Turkey
is lower (90.8%). Mean years of schooling of adults is two years less than Uruguay (6.5
years) and the school life expectancy is 12.9 years. The combined gross enrollment in
education is 76% in Turkey and 89% in Uruguay.
The italian education index is 0.852, higher than Uruguay and Turkey, and the
percentage of GDP spent for education is 4.7%, that is quite low for a developed
country. Literacy rate is 98.9%; mean years of schooling of adults 10.1, just 1.5 years
more than Uruguay and school life expectancy is 16.2 years. The combined gross

enrollment in education is just two points more than Uruguay, 91%.

About gender inequality Turkey and Uruguay have alomost the same GII (0.367
Uruguay and 0.366 Turkey), while Italy's GII is 0.094. The female labor participation in
Turkey is 28%, in Italy is 38% and in Uruguay is 56%, the higher levels among these
countries. The female unemployment in Turkey is higher than Uruguay (11.3%), but the
youth female unemployement is a few less (20.7%). The Italy's female unemployment
rate is 9.6%, but the youth female unemployment rate is the higher and showed an
increase in the last years (32%). The youth female literacy rate in Turkey is 97% , while
in Uruguay and in Italy is 100%. The Turkey's ratio of female to male in primary school
enrollment is 99%, higher than Uruguay; the ratio of female to male secondary school
enrollment is 92% (lower tha Uruguay) and the ratio of female to male tertiary school
enrollment is 82%, while in Uruguay is 173%. The contraceptive prevalence rate is
73%, a little lower than Uruguay, and in Italy is even lower: 62.7%. The portion of
seats held by women in Turkey is 14%, while in Uruguay is 12% and in Italy is 21%.
If we consider the HDI without the income component the difference between these two
countries grows up: 0.72 for Turkey and 0.829 for Uruguay. This means that in despite
of the higher income per capita, Turkey has a lower human development. The Italy's
HDI without the income component is 0.922; this mean that in Italy, as in Uruguay there
is a good welfare state.

Conclusions
Uruguay has always been considered as a wealthy country by Latin America standards.
Because of its advanced educational system and welfare state it has been named "the
Switzerland of Latin America".
By the wey, several issues arose from this survey.
One of the most urgent problem is to improve the standard of living in the rural areas,
which are affected by lack of services and infrastructure, such as educational structures
and means, transports, and a more efficient health assistance.
Another important aspect, in which Uruguay is still below the developed countries
average, is the women rights and empowerment. The problem refers mainly to the labor
situation of women and to their participation in public and political debate. The solution
is a widespread information about women rights and, above all, high levels of education
of women and men. We can expect that in the next years the awareness about this issue
and consequential improvements will be made, because the education level of new
generation is growing fastly.
Besides, the current government, is doing special efforts to raise the standard of living
of all population and reduce every kind of inequality. For example, today the 43.6% of
population benefits of social assistance programs, while untill few years ago it was just
the 15.4%, and the unemployment rate never has been so low (6%); besides the female
labor index shows a better situation in Uruguay than Italy. Moreover, different reforms
have been approved, reforms that prove how much the civil society is advanced, maybe
more than some European countries.
We have to take in account that human development and economics index have shown a
steady increase, and because of these reasons, it's possible to guess that Uruguay will be
catching up the level of the most developed countries.

References
www.cia.gov
http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/uruguay
Human development report 2013 UNDP "The rise of the south: human progress in a
diverse world"
OECD "Worls education indicators 2005" pag. 145
http://www.heritage.org/index/country/uruguay
www.ine.gub.uy Instituto Nacional de stadistica
http://www.mulabi.org/epu/5ta%20ronda/Women's%20Rights%20Guides
%202%20(PDFs)/Uruguay%20Women's%20Rights.pdf
http://cambiailmondo.org/2012/10/29/reportage-uruguay-pepe-mujica-il-presidente-cheil-mondo-vorrebbe/