"Latin America’s middle class expanded by 50%, from 103m to 152m, between 2003 and 2009. That represents extraordinarily rapid social progress. But it means that only 30% of the region’s population is middle class . . ." From a World Bank assessment discussed in an article in The Economist at http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21565930-decade-social-progress-has-created-bigger-middle-classbut-not-yet-middle-class?fsrc=rss|ame