Science and technology

Traditional information and communication technologies continue to spread throughout the region, with a large increase in the distribution of telephones and radios in all sub-regions over the past two decades (see table). There has also been increased usage of mobile phones and computers, with Internet usage growing at more than 30 per cent a year in Latin America (UNDP 2001). Brazil is one of the top ten users of mobile phones, with more than 23 million subscribers in 2000; mobile phones have overtaken fixed lines in a number of countries including Mexico, Paraguay and Venezuela (ITU 2001).

The region, with 8.6 per cent of the world population, has 2.7 per cent of the international scientific community and produced about 2.5 per cent of the scientific publications in 1998. Brazil is considered to be the most successful country in science and technology, investing about 1 per cent of GDP for scientific research and development, compared to a regional average of 0.53 per cent (Massarani 2001).

The spread of communications 1980-98 (numbers/1 000 people)
	Telephone lines		Daily newspapers		Radios
	1980	1998	1980	1998	1980	1998
Meso-America	23.0	86.2	54.8	54.7	181.4	298.7
South America	35.8	120.6	48.9	46.9	305.1	457.8
Caribbean	52.9	227.4	37.9	23.7	361.4	520.3
Region	36.7	139.1	45.7	37.3	293.1	442.7
Source: World Bank 2000