About Haiti
Haiti is located in the Carribean on the island of Hispanola. Haiti covers 1/3 of the island, it occupies the western part of Hispanola, neighboring the Dominican Republic.
I collected some general information on Haiti here. For the specific place in Haiti, where our Chi Alpha groups and I do missions work, please look at the page on Fond Doux and the page with reports on our Haiti travel.
Here are some outside links with facts about
Haiti. More info is summarized below.
- The CIA factbook on Haiti.
- The Wikipedia entry about Haiti (includes a history of Haiti)
- A website that collects current news about Haiti.
There are 13 airports in Haiti (see map above), however only one is an
international airport (in the capitol Port-au-Prince), and only 3
additional airports have paved, but short runways (the others are
unpaved).
As of May 2006, American Airlines flies 5 flights a day into Port au Prince (3 from Miami, 1 Fort Lauderdale, 1 New York). As of April 2008, Spirit Air flies 1 flight a day into Port au Prince from Fort Lauderdale.
Summary of facts about Haiti:
- Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere with 80% of the people below the UN poverty line (for singles: less than $1/day income).
- The unemployment rate is hard to measure, but it is at least 66%.
- The highest source sets the median income at $160/year, i.e. less than 50 cents a day. The average income is at most around $480/year. There are many sources putting these numbers at about half these values.
- There is a highly inadequate supply of potable water.
- Their language is (Haitian) Creole; more educated people know French.
- Haiti gained independence from France on Jan 1, 1804.
- The population is 8.9 mio people. The median age is 18.5 years, that means half the people are adults and the other half are children. Life expectancy is 57.5 years.
- 53% of people cannot read or write.
- An estimated half of the population practices voodoo. 16% are Protestant Christians with 4% being Pentecostal.
- The AIDS rate is 5.6%, with probably a high number of people HIV infected without knowing it.