Multi‑dimensional Review of El Salvador

Facts and figures of El Salvador

2021 unless noted otherwise, numbers in parentheses refer to the OECD average or total OECD

 

People: Towards better lives for all
Population (million)	6.33h	(1 372.74)	Life expectancy (years)*	71.1j	(79.0)
Under 15 (%)	23.4h	(17.44)	Men	66.4j	(76.2)
Over 65 (%)	7.3h	(17.69)	Women	75.4j	(82.0)
Urban population (% of total)	61.66k	(81.24)	Mean years of schooling (population 25 and over)a	7.15*	(12.25*)2
Income inequality (Gini coefficient)	38.8**	(33.25)2	Government expenditure on education (% of GDP)	4.22	(5.26*)
Unemployment rate (%)	6.3k	(6.27)	Labour force participation rate (% of total population aged 15 and over)	61.7k	(60.3)c
Youth unemployment rate	14.0k	(13.75)	Men	79.8k	(68.6)c
(% of labour force aged 16-24)			Women	46.9k	(52.4)c
Firms with female top manager (% of firms)	28***	(17.31)	Proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments (%)	29.7m	(32.4)
Prosperity: Boosting productivity
GDP in current billion USD	29.45	(58 268.35)	Share of GDP:
GDP growth (real, annual %)	11.18n	(5.59)c	Agriculture, forestry and fishing (%)	4.86n	(1.42)
GDP per capita, PPP (constant 2017 international $)	9 086	(44 827)	Industry, including construction (%)	20.71n	(22.28)
			Services (%)	57.85n	(70.96)
Trade (% GDP):			Research and development expenditure	0.17**	(2.96*)
Exports of goods and services	28.28	(28.16)	(% of GDP)
Imports of goods and services	52.49	(28.18)	Fixed broadband subscriptions (per 100 people)	9.37o	(33.64)
Net FDI inflows (% of GDP)	1.07n	(1.9)	Current account balance (% of GDP)	-4.32n	(1.24)
Partnerships: Sustainably financing development
Government revenue (% of GDP)b	20.5l	(40.17)	General government total expenditure (% of GDP)	25.31l	(44.55)b
General government debt, total (% of GDP)	79.0l	(78.15)b	Domestic credit to private sector (% of GDP)	60.29n*	(65.31*)
Tax revenue (% of GDP)c	19.60l	(15.3*)
Peace: Strengthening governance
Intentional homicides (per 100 000 population)	18.1g	(6.16*)d	Corruption perceptions index1, f	34	(66.58)
% of population who feel safe walking alone at nighte	62.89†	(88.67†)
Planet: Conserving nature
Land area (thousand sq. km)	20 720*	(35 508 602*)	Agricultural land (% of land area)	57.71*	(33.85*)
Forest area (% of land area)	28.18*	(32.76*)	Arable land (% of land area)	34.8*	(10.46*)
Total primary energy supply (TPES) per capita (toe)c	0.66*	(3.81)	CO2 emissions (metric tonnes per capita)	1.24**	(8.52**)
Renewables (% of TPES)c	50.32*	(11.56)	PM2.5 air pollution, mean annual exposure (µg/m3)	24.47‡	(14.55‡)

Notes: FDI = Foreign Direct Investment. Data are for 2021 or latest available year: in particular, * for 2020, ** for 2019, *** for 2016, † for 2022, and ‡ for 2017.

1. Index ranges from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (not corrupt).

2. OECD average is calculated using last observation carried forward from 2013 to 2021.

Source: Authors’ calculations based on various sources (extracted 29 March 2023): Unless otherwise noted, data are World Bank, World Development Indicators (database), https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators. ^a UIS, UIS.Stat (database), http://data.uis.unesco.org/, ^b International Monetary Fund, IMF Data (database), https://www.imf.org/en/Data, ^c OCDE, OECD.Stat (database), https://stats.oecd.org/; ^d UNODC, dataUNODC (database), https://dataunodc.un.org/; ^e Gallup, Gallup World Poll, https://www.gallup.com/analytics/; ^f Transparency International, Corruption Perceptions Index (database), https://www.transparency.org/en; ^g Ministerio de Justicia y Seguridad Pública de El Salvador; ^h ONEC (2021) Estimaciones y proyecciones de población de ambos sexos, por año calendario y edad simple (Revisión 2021), Oficina Nacional de Estadística y Censos, Banco Central de Reserva https://www.bcr.gob.sv/; ^j ECLAC (2022) Observatorio demográfico América Latina y el Caribe 2022. Tendencias de la población de América Latina y el Caribe, United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/48488/1/S2200706_es.pdf. ^k DIGESTYC (2022) Encuesta de Hogares de Propósitos Múltiples (EHPM) 2021, Dirección General de Estadística y Censos, https://www.bcr.gob.sv/documental/Inicio/descarga/PUBLICACION_EHPM_2021.pdf; ^l Ministerio de Hacienda for data relative to expenditure, and Banco Central de Reserva for GDP in USD million; ^m Asamblea Legislativa, El Salvador; ⁿ Banco Central de Reserva, Base de datos económica y financiera, https://estadisticas.bcr.gob.sv/base-economica-y-financiera; ^o Superintendencia General de Electricidad y Telecomunicaciones (SIGET).