OFFICIAL NAME: Ivory Coast
CAPITAL CITY: Yamoussoukro
POPULATION: 22,850,000 (2014)
AREA: 318,000 km²
OFFICIAL/OFFICIAL LANGUAGES: French, approximately 60 African languages
RELIGION: Muslims 60%, Christians 22%, natives’ religions 18%
CURRENCY: CFA
CURRENCY CODE: XOF
ENGLISH NAME: Ivory Coast
INDEPENDENCE: 1960
POPULATION COMPOSITION: akan (including baoulé) 42%, man (especially malinke) 16%, gur (including senufo) 16%, kru 15%, other 11%
GDP PER CAPITA INH.: $ 1302 (2014)
LIFE EXPECTANCY: men 57 years, women 59 years (2014)
LIVING CONDITIONS INDEX, HDI: 0452
LIVING CONDITIONS INDEX, POSITION: 171
INTERNET DOMAIN NAME: .c
Ivory Coast, since 1960 independent republic in West Africa. Throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s, the country was known for solid economic development, based on the export of tropical raw materials, as well as for a stable and western-oriented political system. In the 1980’s, the economy was weakened by price declines on the main export goods, but with the big city Abidjan at the forefront, the country remains an economic center in the French-speaking part of West Africa.
Ivory Coast – national flag
Ivory Coast – national flag, The flag was adopted in 1959. The model is the French Tricolore. The orange and the green color symbolize the African nature, respectively. the savannah in the north and the forests in the southern part of the country, and the white color symbolizes the unity between the northern and southern parts of the country.
Ivory Coast – Geography
Ivory Coast – Geography, Ivory Coast is a fairly sparsely populated agricultural land strongly characterized by the various natural conditions of the rainy south and the dry north.
Population
The country’s many ethnic groups can be grouped into four main groups with common cultural features: mandé, volta, kru and akan. In addition, a large number of immigrants, especially from neighboring countries Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana, as well as 200,000 Lebanese and 50,000 Frenchmen. At the border with Liberia many refugees from the civil war live there. In total, immigrants make up almost a third of the population.
- Countryaah: Do you know how many people there are in Ivory Coast? Check this site to see population pyramid and resident density about this country.
Population growth is 2% per year (2006), but was previously twice as high and was among the highest in the world. On average, each woman gives birth to over four children. Health care has been greatly expanded, but mortality is still quite high, with a median life of only 49 years. approximately 40% are immigrants, including tens of thousands of children, who have been smuggled in and work under slave conditions in export agriculture.
Half of the population lives in rural areas. In addition to the traditional small farms, many plantations have been established where the labor force is immigrants. The urban population is growing rapidly. Until 1983, the port city of Abidjan was the nation’s capital. With almost 3 million. (1994), it is still by far the largest city and the country’s economic center, and only the capital functions are slowly transferred to Yamoussoukro (200,000 inb.) 220 km towards NV. The second largest city is Bouaké in the middle of the country with 600,000 residents.
Economics and business
For many years the country experienced great economic growth, especially based on exports of cocoa, timber and coffee. The period of growth ended in 1979, when world market prices for the main commodities fell sharply. The state raised large loans in anticipation of a recently initiated oil recovery. But oil production stalled after three years of severe drought, timber exports fell, and after a further fall in cocoa prices, the country had to stop payments on its foreign debt in 1987. Following pressure from the IMF (International Monetary Fund), in 1989 deep-seated reforms were implemented with privatization, cuts in public support and redundancies in the state sector. In 1991, the trade balance showed another plus, but GDP per share. incl. had fallen to $ 800 per share. against 1150 ten years earlier. In 2006, GDP per capita in. increased to $ 1600.
Agriculture contributes approximately one-third of the economy. Cocoa production is the world’s largest and the country is the world’s fifth largest coffee producer. In total, cocoa and coffee account for 40% of cocoa exports as the most important. Traditional agriculture mainly produces yams and cassava, as well as sugar cane, bananas, rice, maize, coconut, palm oil and cotton.
Forestry is important, but tropical timber exports are declining after many years of logging and rising domestic consumption.
The industry in particular supplies the domestic market. It is among other things sugar factories, breweries, oil mills, canning, cement, soap and textile factories as well as bicycle and car assembly plants. Crude oil from a small offshore field supplies together with the imported oil refinery in Abidjan, from which part of the production is exported to Mali and Burkina Faso. Diamonds are extracted from two mines. 2/3 of the electricity production from hydroelectric power plants. The largest of four flooded lakes, Kossou, was established in the 1970’s and resulted in the relocation of 100,000 people. Natural gas extraction began in 1997 and has become an important part of the energy sector.
Natural geographical regions
Like most of West Africa, the Ivory Coast is made up of a heavily degraded bedrock of Precambrian granite. The terrain is flat and rises slowly to the north with wide valleys in which the rivers flow towards the coast. The northern plateau is only 300 m above sea level and is broken by a few elevations of harder cliff faces. On the border with Liberia and Guinea to NV, a mountain area stands out with heights up to the summit of Mount Nimba (1752 m).
The whole country lies in the tropical belt with high temperatures all year round. Precipitation follows the sun’s annual course, as is typical in the intertropical convergence zone. In April-May, when the sun sets in the zenith in the southernmost part of the country, the rainy season begins. The rain culminates in June, while the rain belt moves north and there is a short dry season on the coast. In the north, the rainy season is from June to September; the rain belt moves south again with the sun, and the coast has a short rainy season in October-November. In the rest of the time, the whole country is characterized by hot, dry north winds from the Sahel and the Sahara. The amount of rainfall varies from year to year, and especially in the northern regions, the rainy season may not be complete; this included in the years 1982-84.
The coastal zone is characterized by shallow lagoons with mangroves. To the sea are sandy coniferous islands. Here lies Abidjan with West Africa’s largest port. The western coastal zone is the rocky coast, a sparsely populated area with the timber ports of San Pédro and Sassandra as centers. The coast is inhabited mainly by Kru and Akan. The people of Kruger live of fishing and can be taken along the entire West African coast from Senegal to Cameroon.
The rainforest has covered the southern half of the country, but only remnants are left due to logging and clearing for plantations and small farms. Here, cocoa and coffee are grown in addition to the basic foods: rice and corn in the west and bananas to the east.
The savannah covers the northern third of the country and is inhabited mainly by mandate in the west and volta in the east. Here is some cattle breeding, and yams and corn are grown; in the driest areas millet and sorghum. The region is sparsely populated and large areas are empty due to the flood blindness.
Ivory Coast – language
Ivory Coast – language, The official language is French. In addition, more than 60 languages are spoken by the Nigerian-Kordofan language family. More than 2 million speak Kru The language bete, while just under 2 million. speaks gur The language Senufo. The Kwa languages baule and anyi are each spoken of just over DKK 1 million. The Mandé language diula is a trade language in the north. See Nigerian-Kordofan languages. For culture and traditions of Ivory Coast, please check allunitconverters.
Ivory Coast – Constitution
Ivory Coast – Constitution, The Constitution dates from 1960 with a number of changes in the period 1971-86. Opposition parties were allowed in 1990. The executive power lies with the president, who is elected by direct election for a five-year term and is eligible for re-election. The President appoints the Prime Minister, who is responsible to the President. The legislative power lies with a National Assembly with 175 members, elected by direct election for a five-year term. Furthermore, there is a 120-member advisory body appointed by the President on the basis of their expertise and experience.
