Argentina | Facts & Information

Updated September 9, 2022 | Infoplease Staff

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Facts & Figures

  • President: Alberto Angel Fernandez (since 2019)

    Vice President: Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner

    Land area: 1,056,636 sq mi (2,736,690 sq km); total area: 1,073,518 sq mi (2,780,400 sq km)

    Population (2022 est.): 46,245,668 (growth rate: .82%); birth rate: 15.58/1000; infant mortality rate: 9.35/1000; life expectancy: 78.31

    Capital and largest city (2011 est.): Buenos Aires, 15.370 million

    Other large cities: Córdoba, 1.598 million; Rosario 1.574 million; Mendoza 1.209 million; San Miguel de Tucuman 1.014 million; La Plata 904,000 (2022)

    Monetary unit: Peso

    National name: República Argentina

    Current government officials

    Languages: Spanish (official), English, Italian, German, French

    Ethnicity/race: European (mostly Spanish and Italian descent) and Mestizo (mixed European and Amerindian ancestry) 97.2%, Amerindian 2.4%, African descent 0.4% (2010 est.)

    Religions: Roman Catholic 62.9%, Evangelical 15.3% (Pentecostal 13%, other Evangelical 2.3%), Jehovah's Witness and Church of Jesus Christ 1.4%, other 1.2% (includes Muslim, Jewish), none 18.9% (includes agnostic and atheist), unspecified 0.3% (2019 est.)

    National Holiday: Revolution Day, May 25

    Literacy rate: 99% (2018 est.)

    Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2020 est.): $893.31 billion; per capita $19,700. Real growth rate: -2.03%. Inflation: 25.7% official rate; actual rate may be double the official rate. Unemployment: 9.84%. Arable land: 13.9%. Agriculture: sunflower seeds, lemons, soybeans, grapes, corn, tobacco, peanuts, tea, wheat; livestock. Labor force: 18 million: note: urban areas only (2017 est.); agriculture: 5.3%, industry: 28.6%, services: 66.1% (2017 est.). Industries: food processing, motor vehicles, consumer durables, textiles, chemicals and petrochemicals, printing, metallurgy, steel. Natural resources: fertile plains of the pampas, lead, zinc, tin, copper, iron ore, manganese, petroleum, uranium. Exports: $64.18 billion (2020 est.): edible oils, fuels and energy, cereals, feed, motor vehicles. Imports: $52.14 billion (2020 est.): machinery and equipment, motor vehicles, chemicals, metal manufactures, plastics. Major trading partners (exports): Brazil 16%, China 11%, United States 7%, Chile 5% (2019) Major trading partners (imports): Brazil 21%, China 18%, US 14%, Germany 6% (2019).

    Communications: Telephones: main lines in use 7,356,165 (2020); mobile cellular: 54,763,900 (2020). Broadcast media: overnment owns a TV station and radio network; more than two dozen TV stations and hundreds of privately owned radio stations; high rate of cable TV subscription usage (2022). Internet hosts: 9,571,562 (2020). Internet users: 39,024,016 (2020).

    Transportation: Railways: total: 36,917.4 km (2014). Highways: total: 281,290 km (2017). Waterways: 11,000 km (2012). Ports and harbors: Bahia Blanca, Buenos Aires, La Plata, Punta Colorada, Ushuaia. Airports: 916 (2020).

    International disputes: Argentina continues to assert its claims to the UK-administered Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), South Georgia, and the South Sandwich Islands in its constitution, forcibly occupying the Falklands in 1982, but in 1995 agreed to no longer seek settlement by force; UK continues to reject Argentine requests for sovereignty talks; territorial claim in Antarctica partially overlaps UK and Chilean claims; uncontested dispute between Brazil and Uruguay over Braziliera/Brasiliera Island in the Quarai/Cuareim River leaves the tripoint with Argentina in question; in 2010, the ICJ ruled in favor of Uruguay's operation of two paper mills on the Uruguay River, which forms the border with Argentina; the two countries formed a joint pollution monitoring regime; the joint boundary commission, established by Chile and Argentina in 2001 has yet to map and demarcate the delimited boundary in the inhospitable Andean Southern Ice Field (Campo de Hielo Sur); contraband smuggling, human trafficking, and illegal narcotic trafficking are problems in the porous areas of the border with Bolivia.

    Major sources and definitions