In Latin America, the country is preceded by Chile. However, there are large gaps between departments in universal access to most basic opportunities, according to the report by the World Bank.

Uruguay is among the leading countries in Latin America in the the Human Opportunity Index (HOI) that measures access to basic services such as a bathroom at home, completing primary school, and access to clean water and electricity.

Specifically, the country ranked second, just behind Chile. In third place was Mexico, followed by Costa Rica, Venezuela, and Argentina. Brazil is in the tenth place, according to the report submitted by the World Bank on Friday in Parliament.

"The index is surprising, almost fascinating, for the intellectual doors that opens allows to us and allows us to value the state of opportunities, meaning knowing the amount of chances that our children will have many our children will have at succeeding in life. The good news is that Uruguay ranks well when giving opportunity to its children, " Marcelo Giugale, director for Latin America and the Caribbean, from the Sector of Poverty Reduction and Economic Management from the World Bank told reporters.

However, there are large gaps between departments in the universal access to basic opportunities, according to the report by the World Bank, report submitted by the economist Carolina Diaz-Bonilla and head of the World Bank Poverty Sector.

The HOI can measure how certain personal circumstances, such as family wealth, race or place of birth, impact on children's access to certain necessary services to progress in life, reported the Presidency web site.

This report is the second of HOI performed by the World Bank. The first was presented in 2008. Compared to that study, the current shows that in the past two years, the countries of Latin America have improved. The best positioned was Mexico, which went from mid-table to third place, said Giugale.

The World Bank expert said that equity, which is the definition of equality of opportunities, can be improved through public policy.

"Generally the concern is that there is no improvement in inequality, we see that there are great disparities between the rich and the poor. This is difficult to change because there is much political tension around that concept. But the concept of equity, meaning giving equal opportunities to children, whether rich or poor, it does change," he added.

In the meeting in which the HOI was presented was the Vice President, Danilo Astori; the World Bank representative in Uruguay, Peter Siegenthaler; Marcelo Giugale, Carolina Diaz-Bonilla, and the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Social Development, Lauro Meléndez .