The first in a series of five handbooks designed to present and analyze statistical data on women in various regions of the world, this handbook focuses on women in 21 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Beginning with an overview of population characteristics of the regions, the analysis continues with a description of women's literacy and education, their labor force participation, their marital status and living arrangements, their fertility, and their mortality. Information is presented not only in tables, charts, and text, but also in narrative form, offering a critique on concepts, availability, and quality of the data assembled on each variable. Findings show that while the death rate does not vary significantly by subregion (the Caribbean, Middle America, and South America), differences in population growth result from variations in levels of fertility and international migration, with birth rates being relatively high in Middle America, where emigration is lower, and lower in the Caribbean, where emigration is higher. While the differences in literacy rates between the sexes are substantial, the gap between urban and rural rates for either sex is larger still. Statistics showed a far lower participation of women than men in the formal labor force. Women's principal power and influence continue to be exercised in the domains of the family and the household, even though increasing numbers are entering the work force. Appendices contain a bibliography listing over 200 documents; a list of tables in the Women in Development Data Base; and tables showing population by age, sex, and rural/urban residence. (LH)