Côte d'Ivoire

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More Facts & Figures

National name: République de Côte d'lvoire

Current government officials

Languages: French (official) and African languages (Dioula esp.)

Ethnicity/race: Akan 42.1%, Voltaiques (Gur) 17.6%, Northern Mandes 16.5%, Krous 11%, Southern Mandes 10%, other 2.8% (includes 130,000 Lebanese and 14,000 French) (1998)

National Holiday: Independence Day, August 7

Religions: indigenous 25%–40%, Islam 35%–40%, Christian 20%–30% (2001)

Literacy rate: 48.7% (2011 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2011 est.): $35.6 billion; per capita $1,600. Real growth rate: -5.8%. Inflation: 5.2%. Unemployment: unemployment may have climbed to 40-50% as a result of the civil war. Arable land: 10%. Agriculture: coffee, cocoa beans, bananas, palm kernels, corn, rice, manioc (tapioca), sweet potatoes, sugar, cotton, rubber; timber. Labor force: 8.764 million. Industries: foodstuffs, beverages; wood products, oil refining, truck and bus assembly, textiles, fertilizer, building materials, electricity, ship construction and repair. Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, diamonds, manganese, iron ore, cobalt, bauxite, copper, hydropower. Exports: $11.24 billion (2011 est.): cocoa, coffee, timber, petroleum, cotton, bananas, pineapples, palm oil, fish. Imports: $7.295 billion (2011 est.): fuel, capital equipment, foodstuffs. Major trading partners: France, Netherlands, U.S., Nigeria, Italy, Thailand (2004).

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 223,200 (2011); mobile cellular: 14.91 million (2011). Radio broadcast stations: AM 2, FM 8, shortwave 3 (1998). Television broadcast stations: 14 (1999). Internet hosts: 8,498 (2011). Internet users: 967,300 (2011).

Transportation: Railways: total: 660 km (2011). Highways: total: 80,000 km; (2011 est.). Waterways: 980 km (navigable rivers, canals, and numerous coastal lagoons) (2003). Ports and harbors: Abidjan, Aboisso, Dabou, San-Pedro. Airports: 27 (2011 est.).

International disputes: rebel and ethnic fighting against the central government in 2002 has spilled into neighboring states, driven out foreign cocoa workers from nearby countries, and, in 2004, resulted in 6,000 peacekeepers deployed as part of UN Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI) assisting 4,000 French troops already in-country; the Ivorian Government accuses Burkina Faso and Liberia of supporting Ivorian rebels.

Major sources and definitions