ABSTRACT
Taken as a whole, the contemporary Caribbean region is by no means as poor as many parts of what is frequently referred to as the ‘developing world’. Indeed, the latest statistics show that incomes have risen quite sharply in the Caribbean along with those in South America. Between 1960 and 1998, average incomes in the Latin America and Caribbean region doubled, from around US$2,200 to US$5,000. During the same period, the region’s income kept in line with the increase in the income of the wealthy industrial nations, standing at around onequarter of these at both the beginning and end dates (United Nations 2001). If we turn to data summarising contemporary global levels of poverty for Latin America and the Caribbean, the relatively enhanced standing of the region is discernible. Thus, in 1998, some 16 per cent of the total population of the region was living on less than US$1 a day. This compares with 40 per cent in South Asia and 46 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa. Further comparative data are shown in Table 5.1.
