- About 10.5 million inhabitants.
- The country is about 23 times smaller than South Sudan (67% of the area of Switzerland).
- 381 inhabitants / km2 (density 20 times higher than South Sudan)
- Half of the population is under 20 years old.
There are between 4 and 12 children per family. - 70% of the population is unemployed or underemployed.
Before the earthquake of January 20101, two thirds of Haitians depended on the agricultural sector, mainly small-scale subsistence agriculture, all the more vulnerable to frequent natural disasters (storms, hurricanes, earthquakes), as the Haitian side of the island has undergone systematic deforestation for three centuries.
Today, 60% of the country's food needs are met by imports, despite strong agricultural potential. - The country is crushed by a debt which represents a quarter of the GDP.
- The ruined and corrupt state has long been on a drip of international aid (half of its revenue) and financial support from emigrants.
- Infrastructure is almost non-existent.
Half of the population does not have access to drinking water, three quarters have no sanitation. - Cholera epidemics (hundreds of thousands of recorded cases) regularly cause thousands of deaths.
- 72% of the population lives below the poverty line.
Half live on less than $ 1 a day. - One in two people is illiterate.
- The state spends only 8% of its budget on education.
The number of free state schools is insufficient (35% of schools in the country).
One in three children goes to school.
Today, even though school books are in French, for ease, French is no longer learned correctly, and Creole is commonly used in the classroom. - Skill workers are lacking, especially in isolated provinces. This is the case when it comes to finding active teachers for the normal school; the same goes for recruiting developers or technicians. And, for the millions of adults without qualifications, nothing to offer! Haiti is paying a heavy price for fifty years of brain drain. Three-quarters went to the Americas.
- In Port-au-Prince, the Cité Soleil slum is considered one of the most dangerous places on the planet.
1: 230,000 dead, 300,000 injured, one million displaced, 1.5 million homeless (or one in six people), 188,000 houses damaged and 105,000 completely destroyed. Of the 10 billion promised, only 2 had been paid after two years, and 94% of this sum went to NGOs, far too numerous and not very transparent. Some of the international assistance has been provided in kind. But the food was not distributed fairly; it was sometimes found for sale in public markets. The peasants were demonstrating in the streets because they could not sell their products. Two years after the earthquake, one in two Haitians did not have enough to eat, and 200,000 were in a state of famine.
