Haiti profile

Demography and Health

Haiti's population stands at about 11.77 million in 2024, reflecting a country with a large, predominantly young demographic that poses both social opportunities and service delivery challenges. The crude birth rate is 22.2 births per 1,000 people (2023), while the crude death rate is 7.82 per 1,000 people (2023), yielding natural population growth tempered by ongoing outmigration. Life expectancy at birth is 64.9 years (2023), signaling substantial health burdens alongside limited long-run improvements. The country experiences high under-5 mortality, at 55.1 per 1,000 live births (2023), which underscores weaknesses in child health, nutrition, and public health systems. Concurrently, more than half of the population—50.4% (2022)—is undernourished, revealing severe food insecurity that compounds disease susceptibility, stunting, and school performance among children. Net migration is negative, at about 31,747 people (2024), indicating a persistent outflow of working-age individuals that can dampen economic development and strain families and communities left behind. Health system capacity also appears constrained: hospital beds number 4.77 per 1,000 people (2021), reflecting persistent gaps in access to inpatient care and emergency services. Public health financing is limited, with current health expenditure at 3.21% of GDP (2022) and domestic general government health expenditure per capita, PPP at 11.4 international dollars (2022), suggesting challenges in mobilizing sufficient domestic resources for universal health coverage and essential services. Mental health indicators are notable, with suicide mortality at 7.81 per 100,000 (2021), highlighting the broader health burden and the need for integrated mental health care within a strained health system.

Together, these demography and health figures portray a country with a young population but fragile health determinants, high malnutrition, and limited health financing and infrastructure. The combination of rapid population growth, high child mortality, and constrained health resources challenges education, labor markets, and long-term development, while migration pressures can both relieve and drain human capital—contexts that should guide policy priorities toward nutrition, maternal and child health, resilient health systems, and capacity-building in public services.

Economy, Trade and Investment

Haiti’s economy shows a low-level, vulnerable profile with GDP per capita around $2,143 in 2024 (current US$) and a GDP per capita, PPP of about $3,183 (2024), indicating limited income growth when measured in market prices, even as purchasing power improves slightly in PPP terms. The trade structure is heavily skewed toward imports relative to domestic production, with imports of goods and services at 18.8% of GDP (2024) and exports at only 3.4% of GDP (2024), revealing a persistent trade deficit and limited export diversification. The external accounts reflect a modest deficit, with the current account balance at −3.44% of GDP in 2023, signaling reliance on external capital flows or aid to sustain spending and investment needs. Foreign direct investment, net inflows, are comparatively small at 0.119% of GDP in 2023, highlighting limited inward investment and a potential constraint on productivity growth and technology transfer. Inflation is notably high at 26.9% in 2024, eroding purchasing power and complicating macroeconomic stability and planning for households and firms. The energy and infrastructure context shapes the economy as well: renewable energy consumption accounts for 76.7% of total final energy consumption in 2021, pointing to a heavy reliance on traditional, often domestically sourced energy like biomass, with implications for energy reliability, air quality, and forest resources. Taken together, these indicators suggest an economy with constrained growth prospects, vulnerability to external shocks, and a need for policy emphasis on macroeconomic stability, export diversification, investment climate improvements, and resilient energy and infrastructure development.

Despite the macro fragility, some structural characteristics align with long-run potential if addressed: a relatively low level of greenhouse gas emissions per capita, at 1.17 t CO2e per capita in 2023, corresponds with limited industrial activity but also underscores the environmental and climate resilience opportunities that could accompany targeted modernization. Renewed focus on governance reforms, private sector development, and public investment could gradually improve productivity, reduce the cost of living, and unlock more meaningful foreign direct investment if trusted policy frameworks and security conditions are established. The energy profile, while dominated by renewables, also signals critical modernization needs in electricity access and reliability, which would power industrial activity, healthcare, and education reforms over the medium term.

Governance and Institutions

Haiti faces notable governance and institutional challenges. Fiscal, regulatory, and policy effectiveness indicators for 2023 show weak performance across several dimensions: Political stability and absence of violence/terrorism score −1.43, Regulatory Quality −1.39, Rule of Law −1.36, Control of Corruption −1.44, and Government Effectiveness −2.23. These negative indicators reflect a governance environment characterized by political volatility, weak policy implementation, fragile rule of law, and limited capacity to manage public resources and deliver services. Such conditions create uncertain investment climates, hinder public service delivery, and complicate efforts to implement anticorruption and transparency reforms. The cumulative effect is a low-confidence environment for long-horizon development planning, which in turn can deter private investment and restrict access to credit, public procurement integrity, and contract enforcement. While Haiti’s logistics environment also reveals governance-related hurdles, with a Logistics Performance Index score for quality of trade and transport-related infrastructure at 1.8 (2022) on a 1–5 scale (where higher is better), these indicators collectively underscore the systemic nature of institutional weakness and the need for governance reforms that can bolster macroeconomic stability, rule of law, and the credibility of public institutions.

Policy credibility and institutional capacity are central bottlenecks. Without improvements in governance, creditworthiness, property rights protection, and public service reliability tend to remain limited, constraining both domestic development initiatives and donor coordination. Strengthening governance would require a focus on transparency, anti-corruption measures, institutional reforms to improve the business environment, and investments in capacity building within core public sectors such as health, education, and infrastructure. The data depict a country where governance quality and institutional effectiveness are pivotal determinants of development outcomes, shaping both the pace of reform and the efficacy of any external assistance or investment inflows.

Infrastructure and Technology

Infrastructure conditions in Haiti present significant constraints to growth and service delivery. The Logistics Performance Index score for quality of trade and transport-related infrastructure is 1.8 (2022) on a 1–5 scale, signaling substantial bottlenecks in roads, ports, and other cross-border logistics that raise trade costs and hamper competitiveness. This bottleneck reverberates through all sectors, from agriculture to manufacturing to health services, limiting access to markets and the efficiency of supply chains for essential goods. In health and education, limited infrastructure translates into challenges like hospital capacity constraints (4.77 hospital beds per 1,000 people in 2021) and gaps in service delivery, which compound the broader health and development challenges. On the energy front, a striking feature is the high share of renewable energy consumption at 76.7% of total final energy consumption (2021). This likely reflects reliance on traditional energy sources such as biomass, which, while renewable, can drive deforestation, indoor air pollution, and health risks if not managed with sustainable practices and modern electricity access. The combined picture is of a country with substantial infrastructure gaps, where upgrading transport, power, water, and communications could unlock productivity gains, improve health outcomes, and support resilient economic growth.

Overall, Infrastructure and Technology indicators highlight a critical need for integrated investments that modernize urban and rural linkages, strengthen energy supply with cleaner, reliable power, and expand digital and logistical capabilities to facilitate trade, attract investment, and support public service delivery at scale.

Environment and Sustainability

Haiti's environmental and sustainability indicators reveal a mixed but critical picture. The country relies heavily on renewable energy, with renewables accounting for 76.7% of total final energy consumption in 2021, suggesting a resource base that, if managed well, could support low-carbon development and reduce exposure to imported fuels. However, much of this renewable energy presence likely reflects traditional biomass use, which carries environmental and health trade-offs when linked to deforestation and indoor air pollution. Freshwater withdrawal represents 13.4% of available freshwater resources (2021), indicating a moderate level of water stress that will require careful water resource management as demand grows. Per capita greenhouse gas emissions are relatively low—1.17 t CO2e (excluding LULUCF, 2023)—consistent with limited industrial activity but still meaningful in the context of climate vulnerability and adaptation needs. The most pressing environmental challenge, though, is linked to food security and nutrition: 50.4% of the population is undernourished (2022), a indicator that resonates with the health and development pressures described above and underscores the interdependence of environmental stewardship, agricultural resilience, and social safety nets. In this setting, sustainability policy must integrate forest management, energy transition, water resource planning, climate resilience, and nutrition programs to reduce vulnerability and build a more resilient economy and society.