Haiti

Full name of country: Republic of Haiti

Region: Central America and Caribbean

Official language: Creole, French

Population: 11,753,943 (2024 est.)

Nationality: Haitian(s) (noun), Haitian (adjective)

Land area: 27,560 sq km (10,641 sq miles)

Water area: 190 sq km (73 sq miles)

Capital: Port-au-Prince

National anthem: "La Dessalinienne" (The Dessalines Song), by Justin Lherisson/Nicolas Geffrard

National holiday: Independence Day, January 1 (1804)

Population growth: 1.23% (2024 est.)

Time zone: UTC –5

Flag: Haiti’s national flag features a bicolor design, with two equal horizontal bands or rectangles of dark blue (top) and red. Centered in the flag is Haiti’s coat of arms, boxed by a small white square. The coat of arms features a palm tree with a conical cap representing liberty perched atop it, and two cannons pointing outwards at its base.

Motto: “L’Union Fait La Force” (Union Makes Strength)

Independence: January 1, 1804 (from France)

Government type: semi-presidential republic

Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal

Legal system: civil law system strongly influenced by Napoleonic Code

The Republic of Haiti is located on the western third of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. It shares the island with the Dominican Republic. Haiti is bordered on the south by the Caribbean Sea, on the north by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the west by the Windward Passage, a strait between Haiti and Cuba.

Haiti suffers a myriad of social and environmental problems, including poverty, overpopulation, substandard health care, deforestation, soil erosion, and an inadequate educational system. It is considered the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. In January 2010, the country suffered a devastating earthquake, the first of its kind in hundreds of years. Over two hundred thousand people were killed in the 2010 Haiti earthquake, which leveled the Presidential Palace and National Assembly Building. Another devastating earthquake hit Haiti in August 2021, killing over 2,000 people and injuring another 500,000.

Note: unless otherwise indicated, statistical data in this article is sourced from the CIA World Factbook, as cited in the bibliography.

People and Culture

Population: Haiti is among the most densely populated countries in the Western Hemisphere. It is divided into ten administrative regions, or departments, which are further divided into arrondissements and communes.

About 59.7 percent of Haitians live in urban areas. Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital and largest city, located on the coast of the Gulf of Gonâve, is home to 2.987 million people (2023 estimates).

There is a deep rift between Haitians of African descent, who constitute about 95 percent of the population; and Haitians of mixed ancestry, who, along with a small number of White Haitians, make up the remaining 5 percent of the population. Haiti's African population is descended from enslaved people brought to Hispaniola by the French in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, while those of mixed ancestry, known in Haiti as Mulattoes, are descended from liaisons between French plantation owners and the enslaved workers. Haiti's Mulattoes are typically much wealthier and of higher social class than Black Haitians. They also tend to hold better jobs, are better educated, and live in nicer urban areas.

Language also divides the affluent and the poor in Haiti. While French and Creole are both official languages, only a fraction of the population, namely the wealthy elite, speaks French. French is the language of instruction in Haitian schools and is used in business and government. Nearly all Haitians speak Creole, a mixture of French and African dialects that originated in the Caribbean in the seventeenth century.

By 2018, 55 percent of Haitians practiced Roman Catholicism, and about 29 percent practiced Protestantism. About 2.1 percent were adherents of Vodou, a religion of Caribbean origin that is similar to African pantheistic religions, although many other practice elements of Vodou alongside another religion, typically Catholicism. Vodou was recognized as a second official state religion in 2003.

Indigenous People: Approximately one million members of the Taíno people, a branch of the Arawak civilization, inhabited the island of Hispaniola when Christopher Columbus landed there in 1492. Peaceful hunter-gatherers, the Taínos were enslaved by the Spanish. Because of the terrible treatment they endured and the European diseases introduced to the island, the number of Taínos on Hispaniola dwindled to five hundred within fifty years of Columbus's arrival.

Education: The Haitian school system includes six years of primary education, three years of lower secondary education, and four years of upper secondary education. Schooling officially begins at the age of six. Upper-class families often send their children to paid private schools. Private primary schools outnumber public primary schools and have higher attendance levels as well.

The quality of education in public schools is poor, classes are taught primarily in French, and few students can afford to purchase textbooks. These factors contribute to Haiti's overall literacy rate of 61.7 percent (2016 estimate).

Among those students who pursue postsecondary education, many forego Haitian universities, such as the Université d'État d'Haïti in Port-au-Prince, to attend universities in the United States and Europe.

Health Care: Health care in Haiti is almost completely privatized, meaning that the government does not fund any free health care services except for immunization of children up to one year of age. The majority of Haitians live in poverty and must rely on international humanitarian organizations to fund lifesaving medical and preventive care. These organizations, however, cannot tend to the needs of the entire country.

The overall health of the population is poor. Infectious diseases (particularly bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, typhoid fever, and mosquito-borne illnesses such as malaria and dengue fever) are widespread due to malnutrition, contaminated drinking water, and lack of adequate and accessible medical facilities.

The United Nations' Human Development Index ranked Haiti 158 out of 193 countries in 2022. The index is based on factors such as life expectancy and infant mortality rate. In 2024, life expectancy at birth was an estimated 63.8 years for men and 67.8 years for women, and the infant mortality rate was an estimated 36.8 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Food: Haitian food is influenced by French, West African, Spanish, and British cuisines. In general, only the wealthy can afford to eat meat or fish, so the average diet consists of tropical fruit, rice, corn, cassava, and millet. Food must be imported because Haiti does not produce enough to sustain its population.

Popular vegetarian dishes are fried green plantains, rice and black mushrooms, rice and kidney beans, pumpkin soup, sweet potato cake, and a sauce made from lemons, sour oranges, and hot peppers. Popular meat dishes include fried marinated pork, grilled conch meat, and dried goat meat.

Rum brewed locally from sugarcane is a favorite drink, and is often mixed with condensed milk during holidays.

Arts & Entertainment: Haitians express themselves creatively through art, music, dance, and storytelling. Two distinctive Haitian art forms are cut-metal sculpture and "primitive" art. Haitian art in the traditional style (paintings using bright colors, broad brush stokes, and skewed visual perspective to portray daily and religious life) is world-renowned.

Haitian music is very rhythmic. Compas is a genre that mixes meringue, calypso, and salsa rhythms with simple melodies. Instruments used to play contemporary Haitian music include bamboo flutes, marimbas, tambourines, and drums.

Music and dancing are integral parts of Vodou ceremonies. Drummers play rada drums made of cowhide and petwo drums made from goatskin, while singers interact with attendees.

Nonreligious Haitian festivities incorporate music and dance as well. Bamboches commemorate events such as birthdays, weddings, and funerals with informal dances and folk music. Mardi Gras, an annual three-day festival prior to Ash Wednesday, is celebrated with costumed dancers and musicians parading through the streets. Rara is a similar week-long festival preceding Easter.

Holidays: Haitians celebrate Independence Day on January 1, commemorating the hard-won freedom of enslaved Haitians and the birth of the republic on January 1, 1804. Part of the celebration involves eating soup, a food that was forbidden by French enslavers. January 2 is Ancestors' Day and honors Haitian ancestors.

Death of Dessalines (October 17) honors the death of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who took over the revolt of the enslaved after the 1803 death of Toussaint L'Ouverture, who helped orchestrate the revolt in 1791 and lead the army of the enslaved in the ensuing battles. Dessalines declared Haiti a republic.

Vertières Day (November 18) celebrates the Battle of Vertières, the decisive battle of the Haitian revolution on November 18, 1803, that led to victory for the enslaved. Other secular holidays include Labor and Agriculture Day (May 1) and Flag Day (May 18).

Among the religious holidays celebrated in Haiti are Mardi Gras (February or March), Good Friday (March or April), Easter (March or April), Ascension Day (May or June), Corpus Christi (May or June), All Saints' Day (November 1), All Souls' Day (November 2), and Christmas (December 25).

Environment and Geography

Topography: Haiti is crescent-shaped, with two peninsulas that extend east and west forming the Gulf of Gonâve. Haiti's territory includes five other small islands, the largest of which, Île de la Gonâve in the Gulf of Gonâve, is roughly 872 square kilometers (350 square miles).

Highland areas of hills and mountains, situated at an elevation greater than 180 meters (600 feet), dominate most of Haiti. On average, the southern part of the country has a higher elevation than the northern part.

Five mountain ranges and four lowland areas stretch across the country from west to east. The mountain ranges are the Massif du Nord in the north, the centrally located Montagnes Noires and the Chaîne de Matheux, the Massif du Sud in the south, and the Massif de la Selle in the east. The Massif de la Selle contains the Chaîne de la Selle, Haiti's highest peak at 2,680 meters (about 8,793 feet) above sea level.

Lowlands lie between the mountain ranges, including the Plaine Centrale, the Plaine de l'Artibonite, and the Plaine du Nord. The lowland Cul-de-Sac lies between Port-au-Prince and the Dominican Republic. The lowland areas contain desert, marshes, and grasslands.

Many of Haiti's rivers and streams flow from east to west. The longest and widest river, the Artibonite, is 280 kilometers (174 miles) long and extends from the Montagnes Noires to the Gulf of Gonâve. The second longest, the Trois Rivières, runs from the Massif du Nord to the northern coast of the north peninsula.

Haiti has a few notable lakes, the largest of which is the Étang Saumâtre near Port-au-Prince, with an area of 182 square kilometers (70 square miles).

Natural Resources: Haiti has small deposits of a few resources, including bauxite, copper, calcium carbonate, and marble. Because of the economic situation in the country, the most valuable deposits of gold, copper, and silver are largely unexploited. Haiti's bauxite mine was closed in the early 1980s.

Plants & Animals: Haiti was once blanketed by tropical rainforests and semitropical rainforests. Before Columbus arrived in Haiti in 1492, there were over 2.7 million hectares (6.7 million acres) of rainforests of mahogany, rosewood, cedar, taverneaux, and tropical oak and pine trees. Between 1990 and 2000, Haiti had the highest deforestation rate in the world. In 2013 then president Michel Martelly announced plans to plant 50 million trees a year in order to double the forest cover, then at 2 percent; by 2018 it was estimated at 3.6 percent.

Despite extreme deforestation, Haiti still has thousands of species of plants and 1,800 endemic plant species, many of which are tropical. In the mountains, where rainfall is high, there are small remnant rainforests as well as giant ferns and wild orchids (Haiti boasts approximately hundreds of species of ferns and orchids).

Along the coast are mangrove trees and swampland, and in the arid regions of the northwest and lowland plains are desert grasses and brush, and several species of cacti. Indigenous coffee, cacao, coconut, avocado, orange, lime and mango trees grow in the lowlands.

A few species of rodents are Haiti's only indigenous mammals that have not been hunted to extinction. Indigenous reptiles and amphibians include nonpoisonous snakes, three species of crocodiles, small and large lizards, turtles, frogs, and salamanders.

Over twenty-five species of birds nest permanently in Haiti. Flamingoes, heron, ibises, and ducks are found near coastal waters and inland marshes and lakes. Egrets, parrots, guinea hens, pigeons, pheasant, Hispaniolan parakeets, golden swallows, and siskins are found in the lowlands and highlands. Many other species of birds migrate through Haiti.

Hundreds of species of fish inhabit Haiti's rivers and coastal reefs and waters. Insects such as the mosquito are abundant and contribute to the transmission of diseases.

Climate: Haiti has a tropical climate characterized by high temperatures, heavy rainfall, and humidity. The trade winds that bring these conditions, however, are partially blocked by mountains, resulting in arid conditions in the northwest.

There are only two seasons in Haiti. The hot season lasts from March to November, with an average temperature of 34 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit). The cool season, from December to February, has an average temperature of 30 degrees Celsius (85 degrees Fahrenheit).

In Port-au-Prince, located at sea level, the average winter temperature is 23 degrees Celsius (73 degrees Fahrenheit), while the average summer temperature is 31 degrees Celsius (88 degrees Fahrenheit) in July. The city receives approximately 137 centimeters (54 inches) of rain annually, mainly during the two rainy seasons between April and November. High elevations experience lower-than-average temperatures and larger amounts of rain.

The southern coast of Haiti is regularly bombarded by hurricanes that cause severe destruction.

Economy

In 2023, Haiti's gross domestic product (GDP, purchasing power parity) was estimated at $34.406 billion, or $2,900 per capita.

Haiti’s largest economic sector is services, accounting for an estimated 57.6 percent of its GDP in 2017 and 50.4 percent of its labor force in 2010. Haiti’s industries accounted for an estimated 20.3 percent of GDP in 2017 and for 11.5 percent of the work force in 2010. Agriculture accounted for an estimated 22.1 percent of the GDP in 2017 and employed 38.1 percent of the labor force in 2010. An estimated 14.62 percent of the workforce was unemployed in 2023.

Industry: Industrial activity in Haiti is light, consisting mainly of textiles, sugar and flour processing, cement production, and component assembly. The total value of Haiti’s exports was US$1.355 billion in 2022. Haiti exports apparel and other assembled products, as well as oils, cocoa, mangoes, and coffee. It imports food, manufactured goods, machinery, transport equipment, fuels, and raw materials.

Agriculture: Haiti's major cash crops are coffee, mangoes, cocoa, sugarcane, rice, corn, sorghum, wood, and vetiver. Subsistence farmers grow sweet potatoes, rice, peas, beans, cassava, mangoes, corn, okra, peanuts, and sugarcane for personal consumption.

Tourism: Popular tourist destinations in Haiti include the Marché de Fer marketplace in Port-au-Prince and the public beaches Kyona Beach and Ca-Ira. Other attractions include the Citadelle, a fortress built in the early nineteenth century; Palais National, the presidential palace; and the Victorian gingerbread houses in the city of Jacmel.

However, despite government initiatives, the tourism industry has depressed due to Haiti's legacy of political turmoil, poor infrastructure, poverty, and disease, problems that were exacerbated by the 2010 earthquake. Then, following a period of escalating gang violence, the US State Department urged US citizens to leave Haiti in 2023 due to high occurrences of kidnappings. Later that year, the United Nations approved an international mission led by Kenyan forces to bring stability to the region.

Government

Haiti is a semi-presidential republic. The central government is composed of an executive branch, a legislative branch, and a judicial branch. Its constitution, written in 1987 and based on that of the United States, divides power between the three branches. The constitution was last amended in 2012.

The executive branch includes the president (the chief of state), the cabinet, and the prime minister (the head of government). The president is elected every five years by popular vote, and the prime minister is appointed by the president and ratified by the legislature. The cabinet is appointed by the prime minister, with input from the president. President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in July 2021, and Ariel Henry became prime minister a few weeks later. In April 2024, Henry resigned following a surge of gang violence that, according to UN figures, displaced almost 580,000 people by June of that year. Previously, in May, a transitional council selected Garry Conille as Haiti's new prime minister.

The legislative branch consists of the bicameral National Assembly, a legislative body made up of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The Chamber of Deputies has 119 members, each elected by popular vote to four-year terms. The Senate has 30 members who are elected by popular vote to six-year terms. Senate terms are staggered so that every two years a different third of the members are up for election.

The judicial branch consists of the Supreme Court. Haiti is also a member of the Caribbean Court of Justice. Lower courts include the courts of appeal, courts of first instance, magistrates’ courts, and special courts.

In April 2024, Haiti's prime minister Ariel Henry resigned and a nine-member transitional council was sworn in, with former finance minister Michel Patrick Boisvert serving as interim prime minister.

Interesting Facts

• The Haitian Diaspora is an international community of over two million Haitians who have immigrated to other countries.
• Musician Wyclef Jean was born in Haiti. His extensive charitable works in the country and his success in music have made him a national hero.
• Haiti has a coastline of about 1,100 miles (1,770 kilometers), the second longest in the Caribbean (Cuba has the longest).
• Haitians enjoy playing soccer (football) and basketball. In 2018, the national team had an undefeated run in the International Basketball Federation AmeriCup Caribbean 2021 Pre-Qualifiers, until being disqualified because of a dispute with FIBA officials over citizenship by descent.

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