Country Profile: Bolivia

Geography

South America, landlocked and mountainous.

Government

Independence from Spain in 1825. Since then, according to the Factbook, "nearly 200 coups and counter-coups. Comparatively democratic civilian rule was established in 1982."

Presidents elected by popular vote to five-year terms. Bicameral legislature.

Economy

Figures unless otherwise stated are from the CIA Factbook.

Factbook: "Bolivia is one of the poorest and least developed countries in Latin America. Following a disastrous economic crisis during the early 1980s, reforms spurred private investment, stimulated economic growth, and cut poverty rates in the 1990s. The period 2003-05 was characterized by political instability, racial tensions, and violent protests against plans - subsequently abandoned - to export Bolivia's newly discovered natural gas reserves to large northern hemisphere markets. In 2005, the government passed a controversial hydrocarbons law that imposed significantly higher royalties and required foreign firms then operating under risk-sharing contracts to surrender all production to the state energy company. In early 2008, higher earnings for mining and hydrocarbons exports pushed the current account surplus to 9.4% of GDP and the government's higher tax take produced a fiscal surplus after years of large deficits. Private investment as a share of GDP, however, remains among the lowest in Latin America, and inflation remained at double-digit levels in 2008."

Estimated per capita GDP (2009 U.S. dollars)

2009: $4,600 (ranks 144th)
2008: $4,600
2007: $4.400

Unemployment rate

2009: 8.5%
2008: 7.5%

Public debt

2009: 44% of GDP

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
2005: Top ten percent of the population" 44.1%; bottom ten percent, 0.5%

2007: Some inhabited areas have no safe drinking water and no light.

Military expenditures as a percentage of GDP

2006: 1.9%

Estimated Deaths and Births per 1,000 persons

For 2008: deaths 7.35; births 22.31, down from 27.76 in 2005

Population

Living in an urban area: 66% (2008)

July 2009: 9.775 million. Growth rate: 1.772% (ranks 73rd)
July 2008: 9.248 million
July 2005: 8.86 million

Migration

2009: More people leaving than arriving. A net loss of 1.05 persons per 1,000 population.

Health

Infant mortality (deaths before the age of one year per 1,000 live births)

2009: 44.6
2008: 49.09

Average life expectancy at birth

2009: 66.89 (ranks 156th)
2008: 66.53
2005: 65.5

Living with HIV/AIDS, ages 15 to 49: 0.1 percent (2003)

Ethnicity

Quechua (Indian) 30 percent, Aymara (Indian) 25 percent, Mixed Indian and white 30 percent, white 15 percent.

SOURCES:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/

Republic of Bolivia