Center of Information to Improve Learning (CIMA): Education Indicators for Latin America and the Caribbean

By Education Division (VPS/SCL/EDU)

The Center of Information to Improve Learning (CIMA) is the Inter-American Development Bank's platform of comparable education statistics for Latin America and the Caribbean, maintained by the IDB Education Division. This dataset publishes CIMA's regional indicators for open download and reuse, bringing together learning outcomes, school coverage and efficiency, physical and financial resources, and physical access to schools.

What the data covers

Complementary collections sit side by side. The education quality and efficiency indicators draw on household socio-economic surveys, international large-scale assessments and international organizations, and span the years 2000 to 2025 for more than 25 countries in the region. They are disaggregated by sex, age, area, income quintile, ethnicity and education level, and are reported with standard errors, coefficients of variation and sample sizes where the source permits.

The geographic accessibility indicators measure physical access to schools for a reference year of 2023, at first- and second-level administrative units. They report the share of the school-age population able to reach the nearest educational facility within given travel-time bands, on foot and by motorized transport, together with area-based and economic accessibility gaps.

The national administrative reports give, for each country, the total students enrolled and the total schools, together with the full citation of the source the figures come from. Sources differ by country: national ministries and statistics institutes, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, and CIMA's own level-2 administrative dataset.

Methodology

Quality and efficiency indicators are harmonized from their original sources so that values are comparable across countries and over time. Accessibility indicators are computed with the Open Source Routing Machine (OSRM) over OpenStreetMap road networks, combined with WorldPop gridded population estimates and the location of educational facilities.

Intended uses

The indicators support cross-country benchmarking, the diagnosis of gaps in learning and in access to schooling, and the design, monitoring and evaluation of education policy in the region.

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Metadata & use

Identifier https://doi.org/10.60966/x0se6zl1
License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Related Knowledge Product
Citation

Inter-American Development Bank (2015). Center of Information to Improve Learning (CIMA): Education Indicators for Latin America and the Caribbean. IDB Open Data. https://doi.org/10.60966/x0se6zl1

Published date 2015-08-14
Modified date 2026-08-31
Tags/Keywords CIMA · Education · Learning assessment · Education financing · School accessibility · Geographic accessibility
Language
  1. Spanish
Temporal coverage 2000-2025
Country
Argentina
Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
El Salvador
Guatemala
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Jamaica
Mexico
Nicaragua
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Suriname
Trinidad & Tobago
Uruguay
Venezuela
Region Latin America and the Caribbean
Publisher
Inter-American Development Bank
Author
Inter-American Development Bank
Data collection type Survey Data
Statistical type Panel Data
Data structure Structured Data
Data notes

What is the CIMA Indicators dataset?

CIMA is the Inter-American Development Bank's Center of Information to Improve Learning, a platform of comparable education statistics for Latin America and the Caribbean maintained by the IDB Education Division. This dataset publishes CIMA's regional indicators for open download and reuse.

What does it measure?

Complementary families of indicators. One covers education quality and efficiency: learning outcomes, school coverage and attendance, progression and completion, and the physical and financial resources available to schools. Another covers geographic accessibility: how far the school-age population is from the nearest educational facility. The national administrative reports give the total students and total schools for each country, with the source of the figures cited in the row. Values drawn from sample surveys carry sampling error, which is why a standard error, a coefficient of variation and a sample size are reported alongside the estimate.

Which countries are included?

Countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, including Argentina, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela. Regional and OECD reference aggregates are also reported for comparison.

What time period does it cover?

The education quality and efficiency indicators span 2000 to 2025, though coverage varies by country and by indicator according to when each underlying survey or assessment was fielded. The geographic accessibility indicators use 2023 as their reference year.

How was the data collected?

The quality and efficiency indicators are compiled from household socio-economic surveys, international large-scale learning assessments and statistics published by international organizations, then harmonized so that values are comparable across countries and over time.

How are the geographic accessibility indicators computed?

Travel times from populated locations to the nearest educational facility are computed with the Open Source Routing Machine (OSRM) over OpenStreetMap road networks, on foot and by motorized transport. Population exposure is weighted with WorldPop gridded estimates and summarized at first- and second-level administrative units.

How can the data be used?

For cross-country benchmarking, for diagnosing gaps in learning and in access to schooling between urban and rural areas or across income groups, and for informing the design, monitoring and evaluation of education policy and investment in the region.

In what format is it available?

As tabular resources in the IDB Open Data portal's DataStore. Each resource can be previewed and filtered in the browser, queried through the CKAN DataStore API, or downloaded as CSV.

Under what licence is it published?

Under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0). You may share and adapt the data, including commercially, provided you give appropriate credit.

How do I cite it?

Inter-American Development Bank. Center of Information to Improve Learning (CIMA): Education Indicators for Latin America and the Caribbean. IDB Open Data. The full citation, with its DOI, is shown on the dataset page.

Dataset files

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