The numbers
The evidence behind every decision.
We work from data, not sentiment. Here is the context that shapes our strategy, from sources you can check.
Haiti in four numbers
11.3M
people, with Kreyòl and French as official languages
95%
speak Kreyòl. At most one in ten speaks French
80%
live in poverty, most on subsistence farming
$2.50
a day is the minimum wage, and two thirds lack formal jobs
Education, side by side
- Haiti
- Region
- World
Children out of school, % of primary age
Youth literacy, ages 15 to 24, %
Adult literacy, ages 15 and up, %
Net primary enrollment, %
Pre primary gross enrollment, %
Primary completion, %
Learning adjusted years of school
Government education spending, % of GDP
Percent scale, 0 to 100. Source: USAID International Data and Economic Analysis, November 2022. Regional figures are Latin America and the Caribbean.
Recent years of unrest, Covid and the 2021 Grand Sud earthquake kept many schools closed or late to open, so current conditions are likely harder than these figures show.
What we take from this
Two numbers drive our strategy. Ninety five percent of Haitians speak Kreyòl, and pre primary enrollment sits near five percent. The earliest learners are the least served, in the language almost nobody prints books in. That is exactly where a children's library changes lives, and exactly where PILH works.