The net primary enrolment ratio for girls increased from 57 per cent to 87 per cent between 1960 and 1990. Their secondary enrolment ratio is 49 per cent, the highest among the developing regions. The gender gap at both primary and secondary levels is very small. The mortality rate of children under age five was 15 per cent in 1960 and 5 per cent in 1993, the lowest in the developing world. Polio was eliminated from the region in 1994.
Interregional differences remain stark.
A Cuban can expect to live as long as a Dane, whereas a Peruvian's prospects are not much better than those of a person in Botswana.