The History Of Uruguay

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Uruguay is a tiny country compared to the rest of its South American counterparts. It is situated between Argentina, Brazil, and the Atlantic Ocean. Uruguay, like many countries, has seen its share of political and economic struggles through the years. During the last decade the government has made amazing progress in restoring freedom to their people, eliminating corruption, and fixing their struggling economy. While the economy is in much better shape than it was fifteen years ago there are still improvements that could be made. When looking at how well a country is doing economically two good places to start are the health and prosperity of its people. Uruguay’s population growth is slowing and instances of infant and childhood mortality
Intel. Agency, “Uruguay”). That may be due, in part, to the gradually falling birthrate. In 2000 the crude birth rate was 16.4, by 2006 it had fallen to 15.3 and in 2013 the crude birth rate was 2013 was 14.5 (The World Bank, “Uruguay”). The estimated birth rate for 2015 is 13.07, this is close to the estimated birth rate of 12.49 for United States (Cent. Intel. Agency, “United States”). The infant mortality rate in Uruguay has dropped drastically over the last couple of decades. In 2014 the rate was 9.1 per 1000 live births a big difference from the rate of 20.3 in 1990 (The World Bank, “Uruguay”). It is also interesting to note and good to see that as of 2013 a medical professional was in attendance for 99.5 percent of all births (The World Bank, “Uruguay”). Childhood mortality has also seen a drastic decline, dropping from 23.1 per 1000 live births in 1990 to a much smaller 10.6 in 2014 (The World Bank, “Uruguay”). While infant and childhood mortality are seeing large decreases, life expectancy is slowly rising. Life expectancy in Uruguay is an average of 77 years old, this is slightly lower than the average age of 79 in the United
The majority of the people that are unemployed in Uruguay have the equivalent to a high school diploma, while only around 15 percent of those unemployed have college degrees (The World Bank, “Uruguay”). The estimated unemployment rate for 2014 was 6.6 percent, this is the same number that was estimated for 2013 (Cent. Intel. Agency, “Uruguay”). This is on par with the estimated unemployment rate for the United States, which was had an estimated unemployment rate of 6.2 in 2014 (Cent Intel Agency, “United States”). It is also interesting to note that while the United States and many other countries were struggling with a recession and unemployment rates that were well over 10 percent, Uruguay’s unemployment rate never went over 7.6 percent (The World Bank, “Uruguay”). In fact during 2008 and 2009 the unemployment rate dropped from previous years (The World Bank, “Uruguay”). In 2010 73.1 percent of adults in the country were employed (The World Bank, “Uruguay”). The average annual salary for residents of Uruguay is around $34,000 U.S. dollars (“Uruguay”). In 2013 the minimum wage in Uruguay was 408 U.S. dollars per month. Their minimum wage ranks among one of the lowest among the countries that enforce a minimum wage law (“Uruguay – Minimum Wages”). This low minimum wage may contribute to a higher national poverty level. In 2013 only 0.3 percent of the population was living at or below the international

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