Economy

Imports
$10.6 billion (2022). Refined Petroleum ($779M), Knit T-shirts ($667M), Light Rubberized Knitted Fabric ($510M), Crude Petroleum ($331M), and Packaged Medicaments ($302M), importing mostly from United States ($2.72B), China ($1.18B), Honduras ($1.02B), Guatemala ($1B), and Mexico ($994M).

Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of  age)
• 23.2% have an account with a financial institution
• 2.9% have a credit card
• 6.6% have a mobile money account

Ease of doing business
Moderate Easy to conduct business (54.4 out of 100), 27 out of 32 Latin American & Caribbean countries, 144 worldwide out of 190 countries (2023, World Bank).

Global Innovation Index
Ranked 17th out of 19 Latin American & Caribbean countries, 115th out of 132 worldwide.

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

Exports
$7.92 billion (2022). Knit T-shirts ($1B), Gold ($979M), Coffee ($778M), Insulated Wire ($706M), and Rolled Tobacco ($407M), exporting mostly to United States ($4.09B), Mexico ($943M), Honduras ($541M), El Salvador ($437M), and Costa Rica ($230M).

Main local online stores
amazon.com, encuentra24.com and ebay.com.

Economic freedom
‘Mostly unfree’ (53.4 out of 100), 25th out of 32 countries in the Americas region, and 122 worldwide out of 184 countries (2024, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal).

Media

Media language
Spanish

Information channels
For most Nicaraguans, radio and TV are the main sources of news. There are more than 100 radio stations, many of them in the capital, and several TV networks. “Journalism as a whole is stigmatised,” says Reporters Without Borders. The group says journalists face harassment, arbitrary arrest and death threats. Many of the main TV networks favour particular political factions and members of the ruling elite have financial stakes in media outlets, says Freedom House, asserting that the Ortega administration “engages in systematic efforts to obstruct and discredit media critics”.

The press

La Prensa – daily
Confidencial – weekly
Nicaragua Investiga – online news site

Television

Nicavision Canal 12 – commercial
Canal 10 – commercial
Telenica Canal 8 – commercial
Canal 4 – commercial
Canal 2 – commercial

Radio

Radio Corporacion – commercial
Radio Mundial – commercial
Radio Nicaragua – government-owned
La Sandino – Sandinista-controlled

Internet Data

Internet users
61.5% penetration, 4.36 million

Share of web traffic by device
41.84% mobile phones, 57.07% computers (laptops and desktops), 1.06% tablet devices and 0.04% other devices.

Median speed of mobile Internet connection
16.41  Mbps

Median speed of fixed Internet connection
51.16 Mbps

Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 120%

Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 93.5%

Most popular web search engines
Google (94.93%), Bing (4.44%), Yahoo! (0.27%), DuckDuckGo (0.13%), Yandex (0.01%), other (0.13%)

Most used social media
Facebook (66.16%), Pinterest (11.62%), Instagram (11.51%), YouTube (5.17%), Twitter (4.28%), LinkedIn (0.61%), Reddit (0.3%), other (0.35%)

Social statistics

Life expectancy
75 yrs (2022)

Ethnicity
The population is composed as follows: 69% Mestizo; 7% European descendants; 9% Africans; 5% Indigenous. Nicaraguans are very respectful of how others think and act. In general, religion and ethnicity do not affect workplace relations.

Corruption perceptions Index
Nicaragua scored 19 out of 100, ranked 167 out 180 countries worldwide.

Current health expenditure
9.68% of GDP

CO2 emissions
0.7 metric tons per capita

Religion
73% of the population is Roman Catholic and the other 16% are protestant.

Class
In the urban context, there are three main categories:
High class: Aristocratic families (with identifiable surnames) and upper echelon business people;
Middle class: Professionals and small business;
Low class: which includes paid labourers, people living in poor neighbourhoods and marginal urban and peri-urban areas. Class issues are less conspicuous in rural areas, being mostly determined by access to land and natural and economic resources.

World Happiness Index
Nicaragua ranked 45 out of 146 countries, with a score of 6.165

Current education expenditure
88.6% of total expenditure in public institutions