Life in Bolivia

Bolivia is a Unitarian State, divided further into autonomous authorities. Legal voting age in Bolivia is 18.

One of the main issues to bear in mind about Bolivia is that the quality of life in urban locations is very different to the quality of life in rural areas. Illiteracy in rural locations is still very high. The problem here is that in other urban areas of the country, literacy levels continue to rise. This highlights the extreme inequality which exists in Bolivia. Strangely enough, Bolivia reserves 23% of its annual budget to educational expenses, which is more than what most Latin American countries reserve for educational matters. In 1994, an educational reform was also pass through government which meant that funding for educational purposes would be centralised in order to effectively reach rural areas.

Bolivia is in pretty poor conditions when it comes to health provisions. It ranks amongst the worst countries in the Western Hemisphere for the health care programs it provides. Haiti is the only country in the west which ranks lower than Bolivia. Many communities in Bolivia suffer from undernourishment — the estimates reveal that 7% of children under the age of 5, and 23% of the country’s population, suffers from malnutrition. it has a child mortality rate of 69 per 1000 births (which is the worst across the whole of Latin America) and sanitation issues, particularly in rural areas, are a huge concern.