Economy

Imports
$11.8 billion (2021). Crude Petroleum ($1.06B), Cars ($369M), Packaged Medicaments ($317M), Broadcasting Equipment ($275M), and Refined Petroleum ($275M), importing mostly from China ($2.34B), Brazil ($2.1B), Argentina ($1.18B), United States ($1.12B), and Germany ($420M).

In 2021, Uruguay was the world’s biggest importer of Maté ($59.1M)

Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of  age)
• 48% have an account with a financial institution
• 24% have a credit card
• 2.4% have a mobile money account
• 19% make online purchases

Ease of doing business
Moderately easy to conduct business (rated 61.5 out of 100). 11^th out of 32 countries in Latin America and Caribbean, 101^st worldwide out of 190 countries (2020, World Bank)

Exports
$10.6 billion (2021).  Frozen Bovine Meat ($2.01B), Sulfate Chemical Woodpulp ($1.5B), Concentrated Milk ($558M), Electricity ($525M), and Bovine Meat ($404M), exporting mostly to China ($3.06B), Brazil ($1.76B), United States ($605M), Argentina ($554M), and Netherlands ($493M).

Main local online stores
Mercadolibre.com.uy, Amazon.com , Ebay.com

Economic freedom
‘Mostly free’ (70.2 out of 100) 4th amongst 32 countries in the Americas region, 27th worldwide out of 186 countries (2022, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal)

Global Innovation Index
Ranked 5th out of 18 Latin American and Caribbean countries, 64th out of 132 worldwide.

The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.

Media

Media language
Spanish

Information channels
Uruguayans can access a wide range of views via hundreds of privately-owned media outlets. State radio and TV are operated by the official broadcasting service, SODRE. Some newspapers are owned by, or linked to, the main political parties. Freedom of speech and media are guaranteed by the constitution and are generally respected, says Freedom House. A 2014 broadcasting law has been praised for encouraging media pluralism and setting up an independent regulator, says Reporters Without Borders.

The press

El Pais – Montevideo daily
El Observador – Montevideo daily
La República – Montevideo daily
El Telégrafo – Paysandu daily
Brecha – Montevideo weekly
Búsqueda – Montevideo, business weekly

Television

Teledoce – Montevideo
Canal 10 – Montevideo
Monte Carlo TV Canal 4 – Montevideo
TV Nacional Uruguay – government-owned
TV Ciudad – cultural, Montevideo

Radio

Radio El Espectador – Montevideo
Radio Sarandi – Montevideo
Radio Carve – Montevideo
Radio Montecarlo – Montevideo
Radiodifusión Nacional SODRE – government-owned

Internet Data

Internet users
90.1% penetration, 3.08 million.

Share of web traffic by device
55.59% mobile phones, 43.43% computers (laptops and desktops), 0.92% tablet devices, others 0.06%

Median speed of mobile Internet connection
33.12 Mbps

Median speed of fixed Internet connection
104.72 Mbps

Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 171.3%

Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 81.6%

Most popular web search engines
Google (96.57%), Bing (2.6%), Yahoo (0.42%),   DuckduckGo (0.17%), Ecosia (0.09%), others (0.15%).

Most used social media
Facebook (68.7%), Twitter (10.36%), Instagram (10.01%), Pinterest (5.91%), YouTube (3.67%), reddit (0.6%), LinkedIn (0.36%), others (0.4%).

Social statistics

Life expectancy
75 years (2021)

Current healthcare expenditure
9.15% of GDP (2020)

Current education expenditure
96.2% of total expenditure in public institutions.

Co2 emissions
1.9 metric tons per capita

Corruption Perceptions Index
Uruguay scored 74 out of 100, ranked 14 out of 180 countries worldwide.

The CPI measures perception of corruption due to the difficulty of measuring absolute levels of corruption.

World Happiness Index
Uruguay ranked 30 out of 146 countries, with a score of 6.474.

The World Happiness Index measures happiness based on respondent ratings of their own lives, correlated with other life factors.