Bolivia-
conventional long form: Republic of Bolivia-
Capital:
Type of Government: -
Administrative Divisions: -
Age Structure: -
Agriculture:
Airports: 1,065 (2004 est.)-
With Paved Runways:
With Unpaved Runways:
Area: total: 1,098,580 sq km.
slightly less than three times the size of Montana
Background: Bolivia, named after independence fighter Simon BOLIVAR, broke away from Spanish rule in 1825; much of its subsequent history has consisted of a series of nearly 200 coups and counter-coups. Comparatively democratic civilian rule was established in 1982, but leaders have faced difficult problems of deep-seated poverty, social unrest, and illegal drug production. In December 2005, Bolivians elected Movement Toward Socialism leader Evo MORALES president - by the widest margin of any leader since the restoration of civilian rule in 1982 - after he ran on a promise to change the country's traditional political class and empower the nation's poor majority.-
Birth rate: -
Budget: -
Coastline: 0 km (landlocked)-
Climate: varies with altitude; humid and tropical to cold and semiarid
Communications: -
Constitution:
Currency:
Current account balance: $376 million (2005 est.)-
Death rate: -
Debt - external: -
Dependency status: -
Dependent areas: -
Diplomatic representation from the US: -
Diplomatic representation in the US:
Disputes - international: Chile rebuffs Bolivia's reactivated claim to restore the Atacama corridor, ceded to Chile in 1884, offering instead unrestricted but not sovereign maritime access through Chile for Bolivian natural gas and other commodities-
Distribution of family income: -
Economic aid - donor:
Economic aid - recipient: $681 million (2002)
Economy - overview: Bolivia, long one of the poorest and least developed Latin American countries, reformed its economy after suffering a disastrous economic crisis in the early 1980s. The reforms spurred real GDP growth, which averaged 4 percent in the 1990s, and poverty rates fell. Economic growth, however, lagged again beginning in 1999 because of a global slowdown and homegrown factors such as political turmoil, civil unrest, and soaring fiscal deficits, all of which hurt investor confidence. In 2003, violent protests against the pro-foreign investment economic policies of President SANCHEZ DE LOZADA led to his resignation and the cancellation of plans to export Bolivia's newly discovered natural gas reserves to large northern hemisphere markets. Foreign investment dried up as companies adopted a wait-and-see attitude regarding new President Carlos MESA's willingness to protect investor rights in the face of increased demands by radical groups that the government expropriate foreign-owned assets. Real GDP growth in 2003-05 - helped by increased demand for natural gas in neighboring Brazil - was positive, but still below the levels seen during the 1990s. Bolivia remains dependent on foreign aid from multilateral lenders and foreign governments.-
Electricity - consumption:
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Electricity - production:
Elevation extremes: lowest point: Rio Paraguay 90 m
Environment - current issues: the clearing of land for agricultural purposes and the international demand for tropical timber are contributing to deforestation; soil erosion from overgrazing and poor cultivation methods (including slash-and-burn agriculture); desertification; loss of biodiversity; industrial pollution of water supplies used for drinking and irrigation
Environment - International Agreements: party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands-
Ethnic groups: -
Exchange rates: -
Executive branch: -
Exports: -
Exports - partners: -
Fiscal year:
Flag description: three equal horizontal bands of red (top), yellow, and green with the coat of arms centered on the yellow band; similar to the flag of Ghana, which has a large black five-pointed star centered in the yellow band-
GDP (official exchange rate): -
GDP (purchasing power parity): -
GDP - composition by sector: -
GDP - per capita: -
GDP - real growth rate:
Geographic coordinates: 17 00 S, 65 00 W
Geography - note: landlocked; shares control of Lago Titicaca, world's highest navigable lake (elevation 3,805 m), with Peru-
Government - note: -
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: -
HIV/AIDS - deaths: -
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: -
Heliports: -
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
Illicit drugs: world's third-largest cultivator of coca (after Colombia and Peru) with an estimated 28,450 hectares under cultivation in June 2003, a 23% increase from June 2002; intermediate coca products and cocaine exported mostly to or through Brazil, Argentina, and Chile to European and US drug markets; eradication and alternative crop programs under the MESA administration have been unable to keep pace with farmers' attempts to increase cultivation; money-laundering activity related to narcotics trade, especially along the borders with Brazil and Paraguay-
Imports: -
Imports - partners: -
Independence: -
Industrial production growth rate: -
Industries: -
Infant mortality rate: -
Inflation rate (consumer prices): -
International organization participation: -
Internet country code: -
Internet hosts: -
Internet users:
Investment (gross fixed): 12.5% of GDP (2005 est.)
Irrigated land: 1,280 sq km (1998 est.)-
Judicial branch: -
Labor force:
Labor force - by occupation:
Land boundaries: total: 6,743 km
Land use: arable land: 2.67%-
Languages:
Legal system: based on Spanish law and Napoleonic Code; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction-
Legislative branch:
Life expectancy at birth: -
Literacy:
Location: Central South America, southwest of Brazil-
Major infectious diseases: -
Manpower available for military service: -
Manpower fit for military service: -
Manpower reaching military service age annually:
Map references: South America
Maritime claims: none (landlocked)-
Median age:
Merchant marine: total: 32 ships (1,000 GRT or over) 413,407 GRT/699,901 DWT-
Military - note: -
Military branches: -
Military expenditures - dollar figure: -
Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
Military service age and obligation: 18 years of age for voluntary military service; when annual number of volunteers falls short of goal, compulsory recruitment is effected, including conscription of boys as young as 14; one estimate holds that 40% of the armed forces are under the age of 18, with 50% of those under the age of 16; conscript tour of duty - 12 months (2002)-
National holiday: -
Nationality:
Natural gas - consumption: 1.15 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - exports: 2.9 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - imports:
Natural gas - production: 8.44 billion cu m (2004 est.)
Natural gas - proved reserves: 727.2 billion cu m (1 January 2002)
Natural hazards: flooding in the northeast (March-April)
Natural resources: tin, natural gas, petroleum, zinc, tungsten, antimony, silver, iron, lead, gold, timber, hydropower-
Net migration rate: -
Oil - consumption: -
Oil - exports: -
Oil - imports: -
Oil - production:
Oil - proved reserves: 458.8 million bbl (1 January 2002)-
People - note: -
Political parties and leaders: -
Political pressure groups and leaders:
Population: 8,857,870 (July 2005 est.)-
Population below poverty line: -
Population growth rate: -
Ports and terminals: -
Public debt: -
Radio broadcast stations:
Railways: total: 3,519 km-
Refugees and internally displaced persons: -
Religions:
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold: $1.342 billion (2005 est.)-
Roadways: -
Sex ratio:
Suffrage: -
Telephone system: -
Telephones - main lines in use: -
Telephones - mobile cellular: -
Television broadcast stations:
Terrain: rugged Andes Mountains with a highland plateau (Altiplano), hills, lowland plains of the Amazon Basin-
Total fertility rate: -
Transportation - note: -
Unemployment rate: -
Waterways: