TABLE 1—

Health and Equity Indicators for Costa Rica, the United States, and Mexico

	Costa Rica	United States	Mexico
GDP per capita, $a	9 460	34 320	8 430
Health expenditure per capita, $	562	4 887	544
Infant mortalityb	9	7	24
Life expectancy at birthc	78.0	77.0	73.3
Gini indexd	46.5	40.8	54.6

Note. GDP = gross domestic product. All data are for 2001 with the exception of the Gini index, which reflects 2000 figures. Data were derived from the United Nations Development Programme.5^,36

^aPurchasing power parity.

^bProbability of dying between birth and exactly 1 year of age, expressed per 1000 live births.

^cNumber of years a newborn infant would live if prevailing patterns of age-specific mortality at the time of the infant’s birth were to stay the same throughout his or her life.

^dMeasurement of inequality in the distribution of income or consumption within a country, expressed as a percentage. A value of 0 represents perfect equality and a value of 100 represents perfect inequality.