Uruguay: Country background

With an area of 176,215 km2, The Oriental Republic of Uruguay is the second smallest country in South America. It borders on Argentina and Brazil, and has an Atlantic Ocean coastline. The country is divided into 19 administrative departments.

Socio-demographic context

According to the Uruguayan national statistics institute (INE), the country’s population is 3,344,938 in 2009. Of this number, 13.6% are older than 64 and 22.9% are younger than 15.
 
Due to improved living conditions, life expectancy has risen over the past years, reaching an average of 76.1 years. For men the average is 72.5 years and for women it is 79.8. The birth rate has dropped to 14.5 per 1000 inhabitants. The mortality rate is 9.39 per 1000 inhabitants and the infant mortality rate is 13.1 per 1000 births.
 
The poverty rate was estimated at 21.7% for the first half of 2008 for the country as a whole. This represents a 4.7 percentage point year-on-year decrease from the first half of 2007, and a 4.3 percentage point decrease compared to the yearly average.
 

Labour market

According to the INE, 32.2% of the working population were informally employed in the first trimester of 2009. This rate is 0.6 percentage points lower than the previous trimester and 1.1 percentage points lower than yearly average. Although this is positive in terms of social protection coverage, the informal employment rate remains high, and continues to be a challenge.
 
The unemployment rate was 7.5% in the first trimester of 2009. For men the rate was 5.2% and for women it was 10.2%.
 

Social security schemes and programs by branch