Only one out of ten Nicaraguans surveyed by Latinobarómetro 2018 think the country is making progress.  

The report places Nicaragua as one of the countries with the lowest perception of national development.

“The lack of progress is one of the causes for the general unrest of this Latin American country”, says the Corporación Latinobarómetro. It also points out that “there are three countries where perception of progress is below 10%”.

These are Venezuela and Brazil, where only 6% of citizens consider their country is making progress. They are followed by El Salvador, where only 9% of survey respondents consider there is progress in their country.

On the other hand, the countries with greatest progress perception are Dominican Republic (33%), Chile (33%), and Bolivia (44%).

According to this report, progress perception in Latin America has experience a setback. In 2017, 25% of Latin Americans considered they were making progress, but in 2018 it went down to 20%.

Around 35% of Latin Americans surveyed point out that economic difficulties are the most important problem in their country; crime comes second, with 19%; number three is the political situation; and number four corruption with 9%.

“To sum up, the most relevant problems in Latin America are basically two: economic problems and crime, which leave politics and corruption as less important”, concludes the report.

The key issues that are causes of concern among Latin American citizens are income, labour stability, social security, violence, and fear of becoming a victim.

In Venezuela “there is nobody who says that the economic situation is good (1% is statistically non relevant).

Countries with larger levels of perception of a proper economic situation areChile (26%), Uruguay (21%), Bolivia (18%) and Ecuador (17%).

Nicaragua is number 6 regarding people’s fear of losing their jobs. Around 53% of survey respondents say they are afraid of losing their job. Number one are Brazil and the Dominican Republic, where 60% of citizens share this fear; they are followed by Ecuador, with 59%; Bolivia, with  56%; Venezuela and Nicaragua, with 53%; and Chile, with 51%. Countries with the smallest number of people being afraid of losing their jobs in the next twelve months are Uruguay (24%), Costa Rica (26%) and Honduras (27%).

In eight countries, more than half of the population believe the economic situation will be better in the next 12 months. “Brazil is at the top of the list, with 58%, same as Dominican Republic (58%). Colombia is next, with 57%; followed by Peru, with 56%; Panama, with 53%; Guatemala and Costa Rica, 52%; and Honduras, with 51%”.

The report also points out the case of Venezuela, where only 34% of survey respondents consider that the country will be in a better situation in the next 12 months, “showing how hopeless the population is”.