El Salvador

Abstract

Poverty in El Salvador has decreased from 40.4% in 2016 to 30.7% in 2020, although it remained above the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) average of 26.3%. Extreme poverty also decreased in that period from 10.7% to 8.3%, below the LAC average (8.7%). The population living in completely informal households was 54.4% in 2018, above the LAC average (36.3%). Regarding environmental indicators, in 2019, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per capita were 2.0 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (t CO2e), lower than the averages for LAC (6.3) and countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (9.1). That year, the share of the population exposed to air pollution levels that pose risks to human health (PM2.5 at more than 10 µg/m3) was 99.9%, higher than 95.4% for LAC and 61.0% for the OECD. The marine protected area of El Salvador accounted for just 0.7% of its territorial waters in 2021, compared to 7.3% for LAC and 18.6% for the OECD. On the fiscal side, environmentally related tax revenue was 0.5% of GDP in 2020, below LAC (1.0%) and the OECD (2.1%). Total tax revenue as a percentage of GDP in 2020 was 21.9%, on par with the LAC average (21.9%), but below the OECD average (33.5%).