ACOG - Mauritania  - IBM

Geography

Location: Northern Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Senegal and Western Sahara

Area:
total area: 1,030,700 sq km
land area: 1,030,400 sq km
comparative area: slightly larger than three times the size of New Mexico

Land boundaries: total 5,074 km, Algeria 463 km, Mali 2,237 km, Senegal 813 km, Western Sahara 1,561 km

Coastline: 754 km


People

Population: 2,263,202 (July 1995 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 48% (female 544,674; male 551,099)
15-64 years: 49% (female 574,282; male 542,762)
65 years and over: 3% (female 28,955; male 21,430)

Population growth rate: 3.17% (1995 est.)

Birth rate: 47.32 births/1,000 population

Death rate: 15.66 deaths/1,000 population

Net migration rate: 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population

Infant mortality rate: 83.5 deaths/1,000 live births

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 48.54 years
male: 45.66 years
female: 51.54 years

Total fertility rate: 6.92 children born/woman

Ethnic divisions: mixed Maur/black 40%, Maur 30%, black 30%

Religions: Muslim 100%

Languages: Hasaniya Arabic (official), Pular, Soninke, Wolof (official)

Literacy: age 15 and over can read and write (1988)
total population: 35%
male: 46%
female: 25%


Government

Names:
conventional long form: Islamic Republic of Mauritania
conventional short form: Mauritania

Type: republic

Capital: Nouakchott

Independence: 28 November 1960 (from France)

Constitution: 12 July 1991


Economy

National product: GDP - purchasing power parity - $2.4 billion

National product real growth rate: 5%

National product per capita: $1,110

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 10%

Unemployment rate: 20%

Electricity:
capacity: 110,000 kW
production: 135 million kWh
consumption per capita: 61 kWh



Olympic Factoid
More tickets were sold to the competitions of the 1996 Games than to any other Olympic Games or sports event in history. The 8.6 million ticket sales figures topped sales to the Los Angeles and Barcelona Games combined.