Dominican Republic

GDP/capita CAGR

5.1%

Unemployment (2025)

5.1%

Gini index (2024)

39.0

CO2/capita (2024)

3.0 t

Dominican Republic: strong, sustained growth, 1980–2025

Tourism, free-trade-zone manufacturing, and remittances have driven one of the fastest and steadiest growth records in Latin America and the Caribbean since the 1990s. Between 1980 and 2025, Dominican Republic's GDP per capita grew from $1,180 to $11,059 (current US$), a compound annual growth rate of 5.1% — strong, sustained growth. Annual GDP growth averaged 4.5% with a year-to-year standard deviation of 4.0 points, reflecting relatively stable macroeconomic conditions. Structurally, agriculture's share of the economy moved from 19.8% to 4.6% of GDP (a classic decline as the economy industrialized/modernized), while services rose from 43.1% to 60.1% of GDP, underscoring a shift toward a services-driven economy. On human development, life expectancy rose from 63.4 to 73.9 years, while tertiary school enrollment moved from 17.9% to 57.7%, while the urban population share grew from 51.5% to 72.5%.

What this growth cost: Growth was not without cost: per-capita CO2 emissions rose from 1.20 to 2.99 tonnes CO2e per person; income inequality (Gini index) narrowed from 47.8 to 39.0; the poverty headcount ratio fell from 8.7% to 0.8%.

What it trades

Top exported and imported products, approximate share of total trade value.

Top exports

Natural or cultured pearls, precious or semi-precious stones, precious metals, metals clad ...20.6%

Optical, photographic, cinematographic, measuring, checking, precision, medical or surgical ...13.6%

Tobacco and manufactured tobacco substitutes; products, whether or not containing nicotine, ...9.3%

Electrical machinery and equipment and parts thereof; sound recorders and reproducers, television ...9.1%

Plastics and articles thereof5.0%

Cocoa and cocoa preparations4.9%

Articles of apparel and clothing accessories, knitted or crocheted4.2%

Pharmaceutical products3.8%

Mineral fuels, mineral oils and products of their distillation; bituminous substances; mineral ...2.5%

Edible fruit and nuts; peel of citrus fruit or melons2.4%

Top imports

Mineral fuels, mineral oils and products of their distillation; bituminous substances; mineral ...16.2%

Nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances; parts thereof8.5%

Vehicles other than railway or tramway rolling stock, and parts and accessories thereof8.3%

Plastics and articles thereof7.5%

Electrical machinery and equipment and parts thereof; sound recorders and reproducers, television ...6.9%

Iron and steel3.2%

Pharmaceutical products3.1%

Paper and paperboard; articles of paper pulp, of paper or of paperboard2.4%

Articles of iron or steel2.3%

Meat and edible meat offal2.1%

Events shaping this economy

Central bank perspective

Why the charts below look the way they do, drawing on the country’s own central bank and monetary authority.