Cuba is the largest island country or territory in the Caribbean, with a total area of almost 111 thousand square kilometers, followed by the Dominican Republic, with nearly 49 thousand square kilometers.

As of February 2025, the Dominican Republic had the largest number of internet users in the Caribbean, with more than **** million citizens online. Even though the Bahamas ranked seventh with *** thousand users, it was the Caribbean sovereign state with the highest percentage of people online. Meanwhile, Montserrat was the territory with the smallest online population in the region, since only **** thousand of its inhabitants accessed the internet.

The Dominican Republic was the Caribbean territory with the largest Facebook audience as of July 2025. At that moment, there were over *** million monthly active users (MAU) accessing this social network in the Dominican Republic. Meanwhile, Haiti ranked second with more than ***** million Facebook users. The Dominican Republic also had the largest number of Instagram users in the region.

The boundaries of the CLME Project encompass the Caribbean Sea LME and the North Brazil Shelf LME and include 26 countries and 19 dependent territories of France, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States. These countries range from among the largest (e.g. Brazil, USA) to among the smallest (e.g. Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis), and from the most developed to the least developed. Consequently, there is an extremely wide range in their capacities for living marine resource management. Throughout the region, the majority of the population inhabits the coastal zone, and there is a very high dependence on marine resources for livelihoods from fishing and tourism, particularly among the small island developing states (SIDS), of which there are 16. In addition 18 of the 19 dependent territories are SIDS. The region is characterized by a diversity of national and regional governance and institution arrangements, stemming primarily from the governance structures established by the countries that colonized the region. Physical and geographical characteristics The Caribbean Sea is a semi-enclosed ocean basin bounded by the Lesser Antilles to the east and southeast, the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico) to the north, and by Central America to the west and southwest. It is located within the tropics and covers 1,943,000 km2. The Wider Caribbean, which includes the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea and the adjacent parts of the Atlantic Ocean encompasses an area of 2,515,900 km2 and is the second largest sea in the world. (Bjorn 1997, Sheppard 2000, IUCN 2003). It is noted for its many islands, including the Leeward and Windward Islands situated on its eastern boundary, Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. There is little seasonal variation in surface water temperatures. Temperatures range from 25.5 °C in the winter to 28 °C in the summer. The adjacent region of the North Brazil Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem is characterized by its tropical climate. It extends in the Atlantic Ocean from the boundary with the Caribbean Sea to the Paraiba River estuary in Brazil. The LME owes its unity to the North Brazil Current, which flows parallel to Brazil’s coast and is an extension of the South Equatorial Current coming from the East. The LME is characterized by a wide shelf, and features macrotides and upwellings along the shelf edge. It has moderately diverse food webs and high production due in part to the high levels of nutrients coming from the Amazon and Tocantins rivers, as well as from the smaller rivers of the Amapa and western Para coastal plains. The Caribbean Sea averages depths of 2,200 m, with the deepest part, known as the Cayman trench, plunging to 7,100 m. The drainage basin of the Wider Caribbean covers 7.5 million km2 and encompasses eight major river systems, from the Mississippi to the Orinoco (Hinrichsen 1998). The region is highly susceptible to natural disasters. Most of the islands and the Central American countries lie within the hurricane belt and are vulnerable to frequent damage from strong winds and storm surges. Recent major natural disasters include hurricanes Gilbert (1988) and Hugo (1989), the eruptions of the Soufriere Hills Volcano in Montserrat (1997) and the Piparo Mud Volcano in Trinidad (1997), as well as drought conditions in Cuba and Jamaica during 1997-98, attributed to the El Niño phenomenon. More recently Hurricane Georges devastated large areas, as did Hurricanes Mitch and Ivan (2004). In the case of Ivan, damages were extensive to both natural and infrastructural assets, with estimates reported by Grenada of US$815 million, the Cayman Islands US$1.85 billion, Jamaica US$360 million and Cuba US$1.2 billion. Although the intense category 5 hurricanes Katrina and Rita did not make landfall in the Caribbean, in 2005, Hurricane Wilma devastated the Yucatan peninsula and has the distinction of being the most intense hurricane on record in the Atlantic. Ecological status The marine and coastal systems of the region support a complex interaction of distinct ecosystems, with an enormous biodiversity, and are among the most productive in the world. As mentioned above, several of the world's largest and most productive estuaries (Amazon and Orinoco) are found in the region. The coast of Belize has the second largest barrier reef in the world extending some 250 kilometers and covering approximately 22,800 km2. The region's coastal zone is significant, encompassing entire countries for many of the island nations. Fish and Fisheries A wide range of fisheries activities (industrial, artisanal and recreational) coexist in the CLME Project area. Overall landings from the main fisheries rose from around 177,000 tonnes in 1975 to a peak of 1,000,000 tonnes in 1995 before declining to around 800,000 tonnes in 2005. The total landings from all fisheries shows the decline over the last decade. In the reef fish fisheries, declines in overall landings are rarely observed; instead, there are shifts in species composition. For instance a decline in the percentage of snapper and grouper in the catch, the larger, long-lived predators, is an indication of over exploitation; although not in the Caribbean Large Marine Ecosystem, this pattern was evident in Bermuda between 1969 and 1975 where the percentage of snappers and groupers declined from 67% to 38% and also on the north coast of Jamaica between 1981 and 1990 where the 11 decline was from 26% to 12%. According to an FAO assessment, some 35% of the region's stocks are overexploited. The fisheries of the Caribbean Region are based upon a diverse array of resources. The fisheries of greatest importance are for offshore pelagics, reef fishes, lobster, conch, shrimps, continental shelf demersal fishes, deep slope and bank fishes and coastal pelagics. There is a variety of less important fisheries such as for marine mammals, sea turtles, sea urchins, and seaweeds. The management and governance of these fisheries varies greatly and is fragmented with incomplete or absent frameworks at the sub-regional and regional levels and weak vertical and horizontal linkages. The fishery types vary widely in exploitation; vessel and gear used, and approach to their development and management. However, most coastal resources are considered to be overexploited and there is increasing evidence that pelagic predator biomass has been severely depleted (FAO 1998, Mahon 2002, Myers and Worm 2003). Recreational fishing, an important but undocumented contributor to tourism economies, is an important link between shared resource management and tourism, as the preferred species are mainly predatory migratory pelagics (e.g. billfishes, wahoo, and dolphinfish). This aspect of shared resource management has received minimal attention in most Caribbean countries (Mahon and McConney 2004). Pollution and Ecosystem Health Pollution, mainly from land-based sources, and degradation of nearshore habitats are among the major threats to the region’s living marine resources. The CLME is showing signs of environmental stress, particularly in the shallow waters of coral reef systems and in semi-enclosed bays. Coastal water quality has been declining throughout the region, due to a number of factors including rapid population growth in coastal areas, poor land-use practices and increasing discharges of untreated municipal and industrial waste and agricultural pesticides and fertilizers. Throughout the region, pollution by a range of substances and sources including sewage, nutrients, sediments, petroleum hydrocarbons and heavy metals is of increasing concern. The GIWA studies identified a number of pollution hotspots in the region, mainly around the coastal cities. Pollution has significant transboundary implications, as a result of the high potential for transport across EEZs in wind and ocean currents. Not only could this cause degradation of living marine resources in places far from the source, but it could also pose a threat to human and animal health by the introduction of pathogens. Pollution has been implicated in the increasing episodes of fish kills in the region, although this is not conclusive. Socio-economic situation The physical expanse of the region's coastal zone is significant, encompassing the entire land mass for many of the islands. Additionally, for countries such as the island nations of the Caribbean, Panama and Costa Rica, marine territory represents more than 50% of the total area under national sovereignty. In general, the region’s coastal zone is where the majority of it human population live and where most economic activities also take place. In 2001, the population of the Caribbean Sea region (not including the United States) was around 102 million, of which it is estimated that 59% is in Colombia and Venezuela, 27% is in Cuba and Hispaniola, 10% is in Central America and Mexico, and 3% is in the Small Islands. Taking into account the population growth rate for each country in the Caribbean Sea region, it is expected that the number of inhabitants would be close to 123 million in 2020. When the population for Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and the regions of Brazil and Florida that comprise the CLME Project are included, this number is expected to increase to approximately 130 million. Almost all the countries in the region are among the world’s premier tourism destinations, providing an important source of income for their economies. The population in the Caribbean Sea region swells during the tourist season by the influx of millions of tourists, mostly in beach destinations. In 2004, for example, the Mexican state of Quintana Roo received 10.8 million tourists with over 35% of those arriving by cruise ships. There is a high dependence on living marine resources for food, employment and income from fishing and tourism, particularly among the SIDS. Although its contribution to GDP is relatively low, marine

In 2024, it was estimated that approximately 662 million people lived in Latin America and the Caribbean. Brazil is the most populated country in the region, with an estimated 211.999 million inhabitants in that year, followed by Mexico with more than 130.861 million.

As of February 2025, the Dutch territory of Aruba had the highest internet penetration rate in the Caribbean, with over **** percent of its population online. As of that point, the sovereign state in the region with the highest percentage of citizens online was the Bahamas, with a rate of **** percent. Meanwhile, only around **** percent of Haiti's population were using the internet. Also, during this time, Chile had the highest social media reach within Latin America and the Caribbean.

Input Data

NOAA Continuously Updated Shoreline Product (CUSP), accessed 1-11-2023; read a 1-page factsheet about CUSP; view and download CUSP data in the NOAA Shoreline Data Explorer (to download, select “Download CUSP by Region” and select Southeast Caribbean)
Southeast Blueprint 2023 subregions: Caribbean

Mapping Steps

Make a copy of the Southeast Caribbean CUSP feature line dataset and reproject it to ESPG 5070.
For the big island of Puerto Rico, special steps were required to deal with CUSP shorelines that did not connect across large rivers.
  Add and calculate a field to use to dissolve the lines.
    Dissolve the lines using the dissolve function, which reveals where there are gaps in the shoreline.
    Use the integrate tool to snap together nearby nodes, using a tolerance of 8 m. This connects the disconnected lines on the big island of Puerto Rico.
    Convert these modified shorelines to a polygon.
    Add and calculate a dissolve field, then dissolve using the dissolve tool. This is necessary because interior waterbodies on the big island of Puerto Rico also have shorelines in the CUSP data. This step produces a layer where inland waterbodies are included as a part of the island where they occur.
    From the resulting layer, select the big island of Puerto Rico and create a separate polygon feature layer from it. This extracts a modified shoreline boundary for the big island of Puerto Rico only. We don’t want to use the modified shorelines created above for other islands that didn’t have an issue of disconnected shoreline segments near large rivers.

Go back to the original Caribbean CUSP lines and convert them to polygons.
Add a dissolve field and dissolve using the dissolve tool. This produces a layer where all inland waterbodies are included as a part of the island where they occur.
From the island boundaries derived from the original CUSP data, remove the polygons that overlap with the big island of Puerto Rico derived from the modified CUSP data. This produces a layer representing all U.S. Caribbean islands except the big island of Puerto Rico.
Merge the modified big island of Puerto Rico layer with the layer for all other islands.
Create and populate a field that has unique IDs for all islands.
Convert the island polygon to a raster using the ArcPy Feature to Raster function. This makes a raster that correctly represents the interior of the islands. However, because the Feature to Raster function for polygons works differently than the Line to Raster function, the shoreline doesn’t perfectly match the result we get when we convert the CUSP lines to a raster. 
Because the Caribbean coastal shoreline condition indicator is created from the CUSP lines, we need the shorelines to match exactly. To reconcile this, go back to the original Caribbean CUSP line data and use the Feature to Raster function again, this time converting the lines to a raster. 
Use the ArcPy Cell Statistics “MAXIMUM” function to combine the two rasters above (one created from the CUSP lines and one created from the CUSP-derived polygons).
Export the raster that represents the extent of Caribbean islands.
Use the Region Group function to give unique values to each island.
Reclassify to make 3 island size classes. The big island of Puerto Rico is the only island in the highest class. The medium island class contains the following islands: Isla Mona, Isla de Vieques, Isla de Culebra, St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix. All other islands were put in the smaller class. All other non-island pixels in the Caribbean were given a value of marine.

Note: For more details on the mapping steps, code used to create this layer is available in the Southeast Blueprint 2023 Data Download or Caribbean-only Southeast Blueprint 2023 Data Download under > 6_Code. Literature Cited National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Ocean Service, National Geodetic Survey. NOAA Continually Updated Shoreline Product (CUSP): Southeast Caribbean. [https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/data/cusp.html].

Input Data

NOAA Continuously Updated Shoreline Product (CUSP), accessed 1-11-2023; read a 1-page factsheet about CUSP; view and download CUSP data in the NOAA Shoreline Data Explorer (to download, select “Download CUSP by Region” and select Southeast Caribbean)
Southeast Blueprint 2023 subregions: Caribbean

Mapping Steps

Make a copy of the Southeast Caribbean CUSP feature line dataset and reproject it to ESPG 5070.
For the big island of Puerto Rico, special steps were required to deal with CUSP shorelines that did not connect across large rivers.
  Add and calculate a field to use to dissolve the lines.
    Dissolve the lines using the dissolve function, which reveals where there are gaps in the shoreline.
    Use the integrate tool to snap together nearby nodes, using a tolerance of 8 m. This connects the disconnected lines on the big island of Puerto Rico.
    Convert these modified shorelines to a polygon.
    Add and calculate a dissolve field, then dissolve using the dissolve tool. This is necessary because interior waterbodies on the big island of Puerto Rico also have shorelines in the CUSP data. This step produces a layer where inland waterbodies are included as a part of the island where they occur.
    From the resulting layer, select the big island of Puerto Rico and create a separate polygon feature layer from it. This extracts a modified shoreline boundary for the big island of Puerto Rico only. We don’t want to use the modified shorelines created above for other islands that didn’t have an issue of disconnected shoreline segments near large rivers.

Go back to the original Caribbean CUSP lines and convert them to polygons.
Add a dissolve field and dissolve using the dissolve tool. This produces a layer where all inland waterbodies are included as a part of the island where they occur.
From the island boundaries derived from the original CUSP data, remove the polygons that overlap with the big island of Puerto Rico derived from the modified CUSP data. This produces a layer representing all U.S. Caribbean islands except the big island of Puerto Rico.
Merge the modified big island of Puerto Rico layer with the layer for all other islands.
Create and populate a field that has unique IDs for all islands.
Convert the island polygon to a raster using the ArcPy Feature to Raster function. This makes a raster that correctly represents the interior of the islands. However, because the Feature to Raster function for polygons works differently than the Line to Raster function, the shoreline doesn’t perfectly match the result we get when we convert the CUSP lines to a raster. 
Because the Caribbean coastal shoreline condition indicator is created from the CUSP lines, we need the shorelines to match exactly. To reconcile this, go back to the original Caribbean CUSP line data and use the Feature to Raster function again, this time converting the lines to a raster. 
Use the ArcPy Cell Statistics “MAXIMUM” function to combine the two rasters above (one created from the CUSP lines and one created from the CUSP-derived polygons).
Export the raster that represents the extent of Caribbean islands.
Use the Region Group function to give unique values to each island.
Reclassify to make 3 island size classes. The big island of Puerto Rico is the only island in the highest class. The medium island class contains the following islands: Isla Mona, Isla de Vieques, Isla de Culebra, St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix. All other islands were put in the smaller class. All other non-island pixels in the Caribbean were given a value of marine.

Note: For more details on the mapping steps, code used to create this layer is available in the Southeast Blueprint 2023 Data Download or Caribbean-only Southeast Blueprint 2023 Data Download under > 6_Code. Literature Cited National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Ocean Service, National Geodetic Survey. NOAA Continually Updated Shoreline Product (CUSP): Southeast Caribbean. [https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/data/cusp.html].

Reason for SelectionLarge areas of intact natural habitat are favorable for conservation of numerous species, including reptiles and amphibians, birds, and large mammals. Historically, many Caribbean islands experienced dramatic habitat alteration across much of their land mass from intensive colonial agriculture (such as sugar cane cultivation) and later by urbanization and other anthropogenic modifications (Fitzpatrick et al. 2007, CEPF 2023). As a result, contiguous natural habitat patches are particularly important for supporting native species, restoring native vegetation, and maintaining ecosystem services. This indicator roughly follows the same approach for evaluating patch size used by the intact habitat cores indicator in the continental part of the Southeast Blueprint, but lowers the highest patch size threshold, recognizing that the maximum patch size on small Caribbean islands is lower than in the continental Southeast and on large islands (Esri 2017).Input DataSoutheast Blueprint 2023 subregions: CaribbeanCaribbean island extent and sizeSoutheast Blueprint 2023 extent2020 LANDFIRE Existing Vegetation Type (EVT) and Operational Roads (Roads) (v2.2.0) for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands; access the data for U.S. Insular AreasMapping StepsReclassify the LANDFIRE EVT data into natural and unnatural classes. All classes in “EVT_NAME” that start with “Quarries”, “Developed”, or “Agriculture” are considered unnatural. “Caribbean bush fruit and berries”, which captures sun coffee plantations, is also considered unnatural, while “tropical agroforestry plantation”, which captures shade coffee, is considered natural. Water is classified as “natural”.Reclassify the Caribbean island extent layer to assign all islands a value of 1 and assign the ocean a value of NoData.Multiply the reclassified LANDFIRE natural/unnatural layer and island extent data. This makes the ocean NoData, but retains freshwater, smaller salt ponds, and enclosed brackish water areas, as well as terrestrial areas on the islands.Reclassify primary, secondary, and tertiary roads in the LANDFIRE roads layer as barriers.Combine the natural/unnatural raster and roads raster to identify natural areas without roads.Use region group to find the size of patch that each pixel belongs to.Reclassify based on the final indicator values seen below.Use the island extent layer to limit indicator to only large islands, excluding small and medium islands, which are captured in a different indicator.Clip to the Caribbean Blueprint 2023 subregion.As a final step, clip to the spatial extent of Southeast Blueprint 2023. Note: For more details on the mapping steps, code used to create this layer is available in the Southeast Blueprint Data Download under > 6_Code. Final indicator valuesIndicator values are assigned as follows:5 = Very large patch (>10,000 acres)4 = Large patch (>1,000-10,000 acres)3 = Medium patch (>100-1,000 acres)2 = Small patch (>10-100 acres) 1 = Very small patch (≤10 acres)0 = Developed or agricultureKnown IssuesSome small dirt roads serve as hard boundaries for habitat cores. While this makes sense for some species, this indicator likely underestimates the effective size of the patch for some more mobile animals.This indicator doesn’t account for variation in habitat condition within the patch.Some docks are overprioritized due landcover misclassification. LANDFIRE sometimes misclassifies docks as forests, so they can get included in habitat patches for this indicator.Disclaimer: Comparing with Older Indicator Versions There are numerous problems with using Southeast Blueprint indicators for change analysis. Please consult Blueprint staff if you would like to do this (email hilary_morris@fws.gov).Literature CitedCritical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF). 2023. Caribbean Islands – Threats. [https://www.cepf.net/our-work/biodiversity-hotspots/caribbean-islands/threats]. Esri Green Infrastructure Center, Inc. 2017. Esri Green Infrastructure Data Description. [https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/5561da06127d48a982d6b91929f29666/data].Fitzpatrick, Scott & Keegan, William. (2007). Human Impacts and Adaptations in the Caribbean Islands: an Historical Ecology Approach. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 98. 29 - 45. 10.1017/S1755691007000096. [https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/earth-and-environmental-science-transactions-of-royal-society-of-edinburgh/article/abs/human-impacts-and-adaptations-in-the-caribbean-islands-an-historical-ecology-approach/68BFF9386CA9BDAD3FB44E5C937AC92F].LANDFIRE, Earth Resources Observation and Science Center (EROS), U.S. Geological Survey. Published August 1, 2022. LANDFIRE 2020 Existing Vegetation Type (EVT) Puerto Rico US Virgin Islands. LF 2020, raster digital data. Sioux Falls, SD. [https://www.landfire.gov]. LANDFIRE, Earth Resources Observation and Science Center (EROS), U.S. Geological Survey. Published August 1, 2022. LANDFIRE 2020 Operational Roads Puerto Rico US Virgin Islands. LF 2020, raster digital data. Sioux Falls, SD. [https://www.landfire.gov].

Abstract

The RFS in Caribbean was conducted in 13 countries between March and November 2020 and focused on the tourism industry and the restaurant, hotel and tour and transport companies. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, data collection was done both remotely and in-person depending on the restrictions in place and preference of respondent. The countries covered included Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Sint Maarten, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos. The survey in the Caribbean focused on impacts of recent disasters to have affected the region, including Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Maria, Tropical Storm Dorian, etc. (see Table 2 for country and disaster list). The data collection was financed by the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) with the objective of better understanding how natural hazards – large and small, affect the tourism industry in the Caribbean. The data informed the 360° Resilience: A Guide to Prepare the Caribbean for a New Generation of Shocks (Rozenberg, et al. 2021) to make recommendations on how Caribbean countries can invest resources to strengthen resilience in the region.

This project was a collaborative effort between GFDRR and Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land Global Practice (GPURL).

Geographic coverage

Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Sint Maarten, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos.

Analysis unit

• Firm level

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The sample was drawn to achieve representativeness at the country level as well as the regional level. In the Dominican Republic, sampling was done in a way to also achieve representativeness in 4 provinces in the country. Since there was no comprehensive list of firms operating in the tourism industry readily available to sample from, the firm hired to collect data created a sampling frame from scratch by contacting relevant organizations and websites. To be able to say something about different sectors within the tourism industry, the sampling was stratified by three sectors, including hotels and accommodation, restaurants and bars, and a third sector including rental, taxi and tour companies, attractions and souvenir shops (referred to in this note as hotel, restaurant and tour/transport sectors). The sample selection was then completed in one stage in which firms were selected by using a systematic random sampling method from each stratum.

Once the firm is selected for inclusion in the survey, every effort was made to interview the firm. The survey response rate was low due to the COVID pandemic, and replacements were done. Replacements were drawn from the same stratum. Due to restrictions in some countries, firms were not reachable, even after several attempts and replacements had been done. To compensate for low response rate in some countries, the sample size in other countries was increased. As a result, The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos have lower than expected sample size so caution should be applied when interpreting country level results from these two countries. See Technical Note for more detail on composition of final sample.

The final sample contains a total of 1413 firms across the 13 countries. Dominican Republic has the largest number of observations because the objective of sampling was also to achieve province level representativeness, in addition to country level representativeness, in 4 providences that rely heavily on tourism.

To make the survey estimates representative of the population, it is necessary to apply weights to selected firms during analysis. Regional weights (weight) are applied to statistics representing regional values while country weights (weight_i) are applied to all country level statistics.

Mode of data collection

Computer Assisted Personal Interview [capi]

Research instrument

• Respondent characteristics • Firm characteristics • Clients • Infrastructure dependence and disruptions o Water o Electricity o Communication (phone and internet) o Road and boat • Suppliers • Disaster preparedness • Impacts of recent disasters (see Table 2) • Impacts of disease outbreaks (Zika and COVID-19) • Financial accounts

Cleaning operations

The following data editing was done for anonymization purpose:
• Precise location data, such as GPS coordinates, and subnational administrative divisions (admin 1) were dropped • Identifying and contact information, such as firm name, respondent’s name, supplier names, phone number and email contact, were dropped • Number of fulltime workers above 100 was recoded to “above 100 fulltime workers” to mitigate re-identification of the largest firms. See technical note for more details on anonymization.

In 2025, Brazil and Mexico were expected to be the countries with the largest gross domestic product (GDP) in Latin America and the Caribbean. In that year, Brazil's GDP could reach an estimated value of 2.3 trillion U.S. dollars, whereas Mexico's amounted to almost 1.8 trillion U.S. dollars. GDP is the total value of all goods and services produced in a country in a given year. It measures the economic strength of a country and a positive change indicates economic growth.

In 2023, Puerto Rico and The Bahamas were the states with the highest gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in Latin America and the Caribbean. The average GDP generated per person in the Bahamas amounted to 34,749 U.S. dollars, whereas the average wealth created per capita in Puerto Rico was estimated at around 34,749 U.S. dollars. In that same year, this region's lowest GDP per capita was that of Haiti, at less than 1,693 U.S. dollars per person per year. The largest economies in Latin America GDP is the total value of all goods and services produced in a country in a year. It is an important indicator to measure the economic strength of a country and the average wealth of its population. By far, the two largest economies in the region are Brazil and Mexico, both registering GDPs three times bigger than the third place, Argentina. Nonetheless, they are the two most populated countries by a great margin.
Key economic indicators of Latin America Latin America emerges as an important region in the world economy, as of 2023, around 7.3 percent of the global GDP, a similar share to the Middle East. Nevertheless, the economic development of most of its countries has been heavily affected by other factors, such as corruption, inequality, inflation, or crime and violence. Countries such as Venezuela, Suriname, and Argentina are constantly ranking among the highest inflation rates in the world. While Jamaica, Ecuador, and Haiti rank as some of the most crime-ridden states.

Aim: The theory of island biogeography provides a predictive framework relating species richness to island size and distance from the mainland. However, the theory as originally formulated does not necessarily scale to large islands and continental landmasses that are capable of generating species through in situ speciation (rather than entirely by colonization), nor does it necessarily account for how human introduction of species alters traditional biogeographical patterns. Here, we examine the ecological (colonization and extinction), evolutionary (in situ speciation) and human-mediated (deliberate introductions) determinants of species richness in a taxonomic group that has undergone a radiation on Caribbean islands: live-bearing fishes of the family Poeciliidae. Location: The Caribbean. Methods: We created a database of both native and introduced poeciliid species occurrence on Caribbean islands through literature review, and estimated the number of colonizations versus speciation events on each island using a molecular phylogeny. Linear regression and other statistical tests were used to explore species–area and species–isolation relationships. Results: Species richness on small islands results entirely from colonization and does not significantly increase with island area, whereas on larger islands species richness increases dramatically as a function of area due primarily to in situ speciation. Poeciliid fishes have been introduced widely, both as a by-product of their popularity in the aquarium hobby and as a means of mosquito control. We show that such establishments have occurred disproportionately on islands depauperate in native species, and that introduced species richness is positively correlated with economic interconnectedness (shipping traffic) and human population size. Main conclusions: On large Caribbean islands in situ speciation has elevated the number of poeciliid species beyond that predicted from ecological processes alone. Introduced species significantly alter biogeographical patterns.

As of July 2025, the Dominican Republic was the Caribbean territory with the largest Instagram audience, counting over *** million monthly active users (MAU). In second place was Puerto Rico, with approximately **** million users. When looking at Latin America as a whole, Brazil was the country with the highest number of users of the photo and video sharing social media platform.

Data was downloaded from GISAID on 17/10/2022. (XLSX)

As of 2025, Barbados was the most densely populated country in Latin America and the Caribbean, with approximately 657.16 people per square kilometer. In that same year, Argentina's population density was estimated at approximately 16.75 people per square kilometer.

As of the first month in 2024, around 94.4 percent of people in the Bahamas were online, making the archipelagic nation the country with the highest percentage of its population using the internet in Latin America and the Caribbean. Meanwhile, more than 90 percent of Chileans were connected to the internet, while this was true for over 83.2 percent of Mexico's population.

In 2019, Brazil and Mexico were the undisputable passenger traffic hubs in Latin America and the Caribbean, registering each over ** million air travelers passing through their airports. At a wide margin, Colombia ranked third that year, while the only Caribbean country in the top seven was the Dominican Republic. That same year, the Mexico City International Airport was the best internationally connected airport in Latin America.

Cuba is the Caribbean country with the largest number of endangered animal species on the IUCN Red List. As of 2024, a total of 88 animals species in the Cuba were listed as endangered. The Dominican Republic ranked second, with 76 endangered animal species.

In the first months of 2025, Guyana was the Caribbean country that reported the highest number of dengue cases, with around 22,039 infections. Guadeloupe and Puerto Rico followed, with a total of approximately 4,270 and 1,647 dengue cases, respectively. That year, the country with the highest number of dengue cases in Latin America was Brazil.