ABSTRACT
This chapter examines demographic and economic trends in Latin America and the Caribbean, particularly in the period 2000–20, and the relationship between the evolution and competitive countries’ performance and the well-being of their population. It discusses the main features of the dynamics and territorial distribution of the population. The chapter also examines economic growth, the inclusion of the nations in the concert of globalization, and competitive performance within the framework of the orientation and direction of public policies imposed by central governments. The size of economies among the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean is differential, as well as the economic structure. The intensity of poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean is minor compared to the international context, but inequality is greater. Latin America and the Caribbean have in 2020, 8.4 percent of the world population, while in 2017 it generated 7.4 percent of the global gross domestic product.
