About Trinidad & Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago is a country made up of two main islands (Trinidad and Tobago) and other smaller islands, located in the far south of the Caribbean, near the northern coast of Venezuela.

Between 1990 and 2015, the population grew by 6.4%, reaching 1,328,019 in 2015. Its structure was on an expansive trend in 1990, but by 2015 it had taken on a relatively stationary configuration in the over-50 age groups. In 2013, life expectancy at birth was 71 years.

Between 1990 and 2010, the population aged 60 and over increased by an average of 4.0% annually, compared with the annual reduction of 2.5% seen in the 5-19 age group.

The economy is predominantly industrial and highly dependent on the energy sector, although it has been shifting from oil dependence to an economy based mainly on natural gas.

(Source: Health in the Americas+, 2017 Edition)

From the Health in the Americas+ portal...

In 2000 the total population of Trinidad and Tobago was 1 332 203 inhabitants; by 2023 this figure had risen to 1 534 937, representing a 15.2% increase. Regarding the country’s demographic profile, in 2023 people over 65 years of age accounted for 12% of the total population, an increase of 6.7 percentage points compared to the year 2000. In 2023, there were 102.9 women per 100 men and 63.9 older people (65 years or older) per 100 children under 15 years of age, as can be seen in the country’s population pyramids, distributed by age group and sex. Considering the population between 15 and 64 years of age to be potentially active (i.e., potential participants in the labor force), this group represented 69.3% of the total population of the country in 2023 (1 063 007 people). When we add these figures to the potentially passive population (287 975 under 15 years of age and 183 956 over 65 years of age), the result is a dependency ratio of 44.4 potentially passive people per 100 potentially active people. This ratio was 45.2 in 2000.

Life expectancy at birth in 2023 was 74.9 years, lower than the average for the Region of the Americas and 5.8 years higher that in 2000.

Between 2008 and 2011, the average number of years of schooling in Trinidad and Tobago increased by 3.3%, reaching an average of 10.6 years in the latest year for which information is available. The unemployment rate in 2022 was 4.0%. Disaggregated by sex, the rate was 4.7% for women and 3.4% for men. The literacy rate was 98,5.7% in 2010 (97,9% for men and 99.1% for women).

During the period 2000-2021, the country improved its score on the Human Development Index, with an increase of 13.8% (from a score of 0.712 to a score of 0.81); during the same period, the index rose 13.5% internationally and 9.4% in Latin America.

In 2020, public expenditure on health accounted for 3.38% of gross domestic product (GDP) and 9.56% of total public expenditure, while out-of-pocket spending on health accounted for 46.31% of total health expenditure.