Belize Basics · 5 of 9
Belize and the US, per person
Electricity, water, rubbish, carbon, income and health spending, per person, side by side. The average American uses several times what the average Belizean does, and spends more than forty times as much on health care.
All Belize Basics pages
Most visitors to Belize come from the United States: 72.3% of overnight arrivals in 2025. So here is the comparison many of them wonder about, one person at a time. Every figure comes from an international dataset that measures both countries the same way, mostly the World Bank’s. Where the two countries’ years differ, the table says so.
At a glance: how many times more the US uses or spends
United States Belize Each US bar is full width; Belize is drawn to the same scale.
The numbers
“×” is the US figure divided by Belize’s.
| Per person, per year unless stated | Belize | United States | US ÷ Belize | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electricity used (kWh) | 2,038 | 12,752 | 6.3× | 2024 |
| Water withdrawn (m³) | 251 | 1,330 | 5.3× | Totals: Belize 2000, US 2015 (see note) |
| …the same, litres a day | 687 | 3,644 | ||
| Municipal waste (kg a day) | 0.77 | 2.22 | 2.9× | Belize c. 2015; US 2018 |
| CO₂ from fuel and industry (tonnes) | 1.9 | 14.2 | 7.4× | 2024 |
| GDP per person (US$) | 7,865 | 90,027 | 11.4× | 2025 |
| GDP per person (PPP, international $) | 14,966 | 90,027 | 6.0× | 2025 |
| GNI per person (Atlas, US$) | 7,530 | 88,810 | 11.8× | 2025 |
| GNI per person (PPP, international $) | 14,230 | 89,490 | 6.3× | 2025 |
| Household consumption (US$) | 4,938 | 58,517 | 11.9× | 2024 |
| Health spending (US$) | 309 | 13,473 | 43.5× | 2023 |
| Health spending (PPP, international $) | 573 | 13,473 | 23.5× | 2023 |
| Life expectancy at birth (years) | 73.7 | 78.9 | 2024 | |
| Share of people using the internet | 80% | 95% | 2024 |
What the numbers do and don’t say
Electricity. Belize is hot all year and air-conditioning is common, yet the average American still uses about six times as much power. Belize’s figure also counts the hotels and resorts that serve over half a million overnight visitors a year, so a Belizean household uses less than the per-person number suggests. Both countries’ figures come from the same dataset (Ember, via Our World in Data); the World Bank’s own US figure for 2024, 12,839 kWh, agrees.
Water. This is the weakest row. The figures are total withdrawals for farming, industry and towns, divided by population, not just what comes out of the tap. In the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s AQUASTAT figures, as published by the World Bank, Belize’s total hasn’t changed since 2000 and the US total since 2015; both are carried forward, and we divide both by the 2022 population. Treat 5× as a rough guide.
Rubbish. From the World Bank’s What a Waste 2.0 dataset. The US figure matches the Environmental Protection Agency’s 4.9 pounds per person per day for 2018. The dataset doesn’t give Belize’s year; its population figure points to about 2015. The dataset doesn’t say whether visitors’ rubbish is in the total; if it is, it is divided among residents only.
Carbon. Datasets disagree about Belize. The Global Carbon Project, used above, gives 1.9 tonnes a head; the EU’s EDGAR database, which the World Bank uses, gives 0.93 tonnes, which would make the US figure (13.6 tonnes) 14.6 times larger. We show the smaller gap. Neither counts forests or land use.
Income. At the official exchange rate, Americans produce and earn about 11 to 12 times as much per head. Prices are lower in Belize, so the World Bank also compares at purchasing-power parity (PPP), which asks what the money buys locally. On that basis the gap is about six times. Island prices on Ambergris Caye are higher than the national average the PPP figure reflects.
Health. The largest gap on the page: in 2023 the United States spent $13,473 per person on health care, Belize $309. Even adjusted for prices it is 23 times more. Americans live about five years longer on average, a gap that reflects many things besides medical spending. Belizeans pay a bigger share themselves: 27% of health spending was out of pocket in 2023, against 11% in the US.
For how Belize earns and spends its money, see The economy.
Sources
All World Bank figures were fetched from the World Development Indicators API on 23 September 2026 (e.g. api.worldbank.org/v2/country/BLZ;USA/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD). Ratios are our arithmetic.
- World Bank, World Development Indicators: GDP per capita, current US$ (NY.GDP.PCAP.CD) and PPP (NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD); GNI per capita, Atlas method (NY.GNP.PCAP.CD) and PPP (NY.GNP.PCAP.PP.CD); household final consumption expenditure, current US$ (NE.CON.PRVT.CD) divided by population (SP.POP.TOTL); life expectancy at birth (SP.DYN.LE00.IN); individuals using the internet (IT.NET.USER.ZS); electric power consumption per capita (EG.USE.ELEC.KH.PC; US only, no Belize data); CO₂ emissions excluding LULUCF per capita (EN.GHG.CO2.PC.CE.AR5, from EDGAR); annual freshwater withdrawals (ER.H2O.FWTL.K3, from FAO AQUASTAT) divided by 2022 population
- World Health Organization, Global Health Expenditure Database, via the World Bank (SH.XPD.CHEX.PC.CD, SH.XPD.CHEX.PP.CD, SH.XPD.OOPC.CH.ZS), cross-checked against the WHO Global Health Observatory API
- Our World in Data, Per capita electricity demand (Ember), CO₂ emissions per capita (Global Carbon Budget 2025) and Water withdrawals per capita (FAO AQUASTAT; US check)
- World Bank, What a Waste 2.0, country-level data: total municipal solid waste generated and population
- US Environmental Protection Agency, National overview: facts and figures on materials, wastes and recycling (2018: 4.9 lb per person per day)
- Central Bank of Belize, Annual Report 2025 (stay-over arrivals and the US share)
Download the table as open data: CSV · JSON. Free to reuse with credit to belizepulse.com.
The facts on this page were checked against the sources listed above on 23 September 2026. Things change: if you spot something out of date, tell us at [email protected].
