Latin America Global Champion

How Latin America excels globally.

Latin America is shining globally, not only in terms of economic growth, but also in several other areas, Raul Rivera points out in his book Nuestra Hora (Pearson).
Brazil’s dimensions are comparable to that of the United States, while Argentina’s are equivalent to those of India. Meanwhile, Latin America’s population of 600 million is twice that of the United States and far superior to that of the European Union.
Rivera also argues that Latin America’s image as a poor underdeveloped area is unfair.  “Although “Latin America” and “poverty” are concepts inextricably linked in the mind of many observers, the reality is that we are basically a middle-class area, not so wealthy, nor so poor,” he writes. “Asia and Africa are the poor regions of the world, not ours.”
Here we republish some of the charts he refers to in his book. They are developed by Worldmapper.

FRUIT

South American territories export twice as much fruit (net) as territories in any other region, except for Western Europe. But as a region, Western Europe is not a net exporter.

WATER RESOURCES

Of all the water available, the regions of South America and Asia Pacific have the most.

FOREST

Land under natural or planted stands of trees. The largest areas of forest in 2000 were found in the Russian Federation, Brazil and Canada.

POVERTY

The human poverty index uses indicators that capture non-financial elements of poverty, such as life expectancy, adult literacy, water quality and children that are underweight.

BIOCAPACITY

Biocapacity measures how biologically productive land is.