Social characteristics

In order to describe the social characteristics of the Mercosur members, we must look at their Human Development Index. The HDI is an indicator which measures the development of the countries taking some variables into account, such as the education, health or wealth of such country. 

According to the data of 2017 presented by the UN Development Programme, amongst the 4 Mercosur members (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay: we don’t take Venezuela into account since it’s suspended), Argentina is the one with a higher index.

It’s the 47^th country in the world list, with an index of 0.825 (considered “High Human Development”). Getting into more details, its life expectancy is located around 76.7 years old and it has a literacy rate of 98.1%. 

The second country of the region is Uruguay, the 55^th in the world list, with a HDI of 0.804 (also considered “High Human Development”). Its life expectancy is around 77.6 years old and its literacy rate is 98.5%.

However, both Brazil and Paraguay have lower values for these indicators and are considered countries with a “Medium Human Development” (HDI between 0.5 and 0.8). Brazil, for instance, occupies the 79^th position in the world rank with an index of 0.759. Its life expectancy is 75.7 years old and its literacy rate is 91.7% (visibly lower than the other members of the region).

And finally, Paraguay is in the 110^th position, with a 0.702 index. Its life expectancy is 73.2 years old and its literacy rate, 95.1%. 

As it is seen in the map below, Argentina and Uruguay have an index higher than 0.79, and are coloured in a darker shade. Brazil's index is between 0.73 and 0.79, thus, it's coloured in a medium shade; and in the last position, Paraguay is coloured with the lightest shade, which corresponds to an index lower than 0.71.

Source: Actualitix | World Atlas - Statistics by countries.

These previous values show us that nowadays the literacy percentage in the region is virtually complete. This is the result of a long process, as educational reforms were introduced to upgrade the system in view of the alarming results regarding the effective knowledge acquired by students in the 90s decade. During these last decades, taking advantage of the democratic stability which allows these countries to find common interests and policies, the governments have increased the educational funding, so that the quality improved, as well the coverage of this basic service. 

However, education still faces some challenges within the Mercosur’s borders related to the complete coverage of all areas and its quality. One such challenge is for instance, the distance between learning results in the regions and the required minimums of knowledge. Consequently, one of the goals regarding this topic is to expand and universalize basic and secondary education which would lead to a complete eradication of illiteracy.