Remittance share of GDP in Latin America, by country

Honduras, El Salvador, and Haiti were the most likely receivers of remittances in Latin America in 2022, with GDP shares being nearly 10 times than in Brazil. This is according to a calculation that looks at the share of remittance inflow in the GDP of several countries, territories, and islands across the region. Note that the figures shown here are "personal" remittances and not "total" remittances. While technically different, oftentimes the two types of remittances have the same figures due to a general lack of data tracking. Remittances had the most impact on Honduras' economy in 2022, when incoming money transfers from abroad made up roughly 27 percent of the country's GDP.

Personal remittances as share of GDP in selected countries in Latin America from as of 2022, based on remittance inflow from any other country

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Release date

February 2024

More information

Region

LAC

Survey time period

2022

Special properties

This statistic follows the BPM 6 definitions of remittances, differentiating between "personal" and "total" remittances even if the two figures are often the same. See the "Details" tab for more information.

Supplementary notes

The numbers provided have been calculated by Statista, using definitions of remittances set in BPM 6 - the Sixth Edition of the IMF's Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual. The IMF used the following remittance definitions:

Personal remittances: The sum of "personal transfers", "compensation of employees" and "capital transfers between households";
Total remittances: The sum of "1. Personal remittances" with "social benefits";
Total remittances and transfers to Non-Profit Institutions Serving Households (NPISHs): The sum of "2. Total remittances" with "current transfers to NPISHs" and "capital transfers to NPISHs"

The categories of "personal transfers", "compensation of employees", "capital transfers between households", "social benefits", "current transfers to NPISHs" and "capital transfers to NPISHs" are all found in the IMF's Balance of Payments (BOP) database. Both the World Bank - and its KNOMAD department - adopted this IMF database in all their reportings on remittances.

Only the first two IMF categories - "personal transfers" and "compensation of employees" - are reported, though. All other categories are supplementary, meaning data is often not available or researched. This effectively means remittance data is incomplete - as it only covers (parts of) 1. Personal remittances.

Due to this lack of additional information, calculations on 1. Personal remittances and 2. Total remittances regularly lead to the same results. However, sources tend to write "total remittances" when the figures technically refer to "personal remittances". To avoid this confusion, Statista follows the BPM 6 wording of "personal remittances", unless a country does provide additional data that would lead to different figures that would be accounted for in "total remittances".

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