Tunisia

Wealth and National Well-Being

Country Comparisons: chart

World Factbook: "Tunisia has a diverse, market-oriented economy, with important agricultural, mining, tourism, and manufacturing sectors but faces an array of challenges. Following an ill-fated experiment wih socialist economic policies in the 1960s, Tunisia successfully focused on bolstering exports, foreign investment, and tourism."

Economic growth rate
2011: 0%
2010: 3.1%

Labor force in agriculture
2009: 18.3%

Unemployment rate
2011: 16%
2010: 14.7%

Public debt
2011: 51.8% of GDP

Export commodities
Clothing, semi-finished goods and textiles, agricultural products, mechanical goods, phosphates and chemicals, hydrocarbons, electrical equipment

Income Distribution – gini index
Ranks 63rd among 140 countries (higher rank number is more equal, lower rank number is less equal). Less equal than Britain, which ranks 94th, and more equal than the US, which ranks 45th.

Export partners
2010: France 26.5%, Italy 17.4%, Germany 9.6%, Libya 6.2%, UK 5.6%, Spain 4.2%

Health expenditures
2009: 6.2% of GDP

People

Living in an urban area
2010: 67% – with an annual increase of 1.5%

Ethnic groups
Arab 98%, European 1%, Jewish and other 1%

Religions:
Muslim 98%, Christian 1%, Jewish and other 1%

Net migration rate
A net loss of 1.78 persons per 1,000 population per year

Literacy, Age 15 and Older
2004 census: males 83.4%, females 65.3%

Geography

Between Algeria in the west and Libya in the east. Coastline: 1,424 kilometers along the Mediterranean Sea. Equivalent to 404 by 404 kilometers or 253 by 253 miles.

Government

Head of state: Moncef Marzouki (president) since 13 December 2011, Congress of the Repubic, a rights oriented party created in 2001 but not legalized until after Tunesia's revolution in 2011. Head of government: Ali Laarayedh (prime minister), takes office the first of March 2013, Ennahda Movement. Vows to form a government for "all Tunisians" based on the fact that "men and women have equal rights and duties". He and his wife were brutalized by the Ali regime (which ruled from 1987-2011).

President elected by popular vote to five-year term. Prime minister chosen by president. Capital: Tunis.

Recent History

Independent from France in 1956.

Dec 17, 2010: In the town of Sidi Bouzid (see map), Mohammed Bouazizi, 26-year-old fruits and vegetables merchant, responds to police harrassment by setting himself afire. Protests begin in that city – a spark that begins what will be called the Arab spring.

Dec 28: Protests have spread to Tunis, the capital. The president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, describes the protesters as "a minority of extremists" and says the law will be applied "in all firmness" to punish protesters."

Dec 31: Lawyers across Tunisia protest against recent arrests of other lawyers and in solidarity with the protests in Sidi Bouzid.

Jan 14, 2011: President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali vacates his office and flees with his wife and three children to Saudi Arabia.

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