Argentina (2001) | Bolivia (2006) | |
![]() | ![]() | |
Administrative divisions | 23 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia), and 1 autonomous city* (distrito federal); Buenos Aires; Buenos Aires Capital Federal*; Catamarca; Chaco; Chubut; Cordoba; Corrientes; Entre Rios; Formosa; Jujuy; La Pampa; La Rioja; Mendoza; Misiones; Neuquen; Rio Negro; Salta; San Juan; San Luis; Santa Cruz; Santa Fe; Santiago del Estero; Tierra del Fuego, Antartica e Islas del Atlantico Sur; Tucuman
note: the US does not recognize any claims to Antarctica |
9 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento); Beni, Chuquisaca, Cochabamba, La Paz, Oruro, Pando, Potosi, Santa Cruz, Tarija |
Age structure | 0-14 years:
26.54% (male 5,077,593; female 4,842,811) 15-64 years: 63.04% (male 11,795,282; female 11,773,855) 65 years and over: 10.42% (male 1,609,672; female 2,285,603) (2001 est.) |
0-14 years: 35% (male 1,603,982/female 1,542,319)
15-64 years: 60.4% (male 2,660,806/female 2,771,807) 65 years and over: 4.6% (male 182,412/female 227,720) (2006 est.) |
Agriculture - products | sunflower seeds, lemons, soybeans, grapes, corn, tobacco, peanuts, tea, wheat; livestock | soybeans, coffee, coca, cotton, corn, sugarcane, rice, potatoes; timber |
Airports | 1,359 (2000 est.) | 1,084 (2006) |
Airports - with paved runways | total:
143 over 3,047 m: 4 2,438 to 3,047 m: 25 1,524 to 2,437 m: 57 914 to 1,523 m: 48 under 914 m: 9 (2000 est.) |
total: 16
over 3,047 m: 4 2,438 to 3,047 m: 4 1,524 to 2,437 m: 5 914 to 1,523 m: 3 (2006) |
Airports - with unpaved runways | total:
1,216 over 3,047 m: 2 2,438 to 3,047 m: 2 1,524 to 2,437 m: 56 914 to 1,523 m: 601 under 914 m: 555 (2000 est.) |
total: 1,068
over 3,047 m: 1 2,438 to 3,047 m: 3 1,524 to 2,437 m: 60 914 to 1,523 m: 207 under 914 m: 797 (2006) |
Area | total:
2,766,890 sq km land: 2,736,690 sq km water: 30,200 sq km |
total: 1,098,580 sq km
land: 1,084,390 sq km water: 14,190 sq km |
Area - comparative | slightly less than three-tenths the size of the US | slightly less than three times the size of Montana |
Background | Following independence from Spain in 1816, Argentina experienced periods of internal political conflict between conservatives and liberals and between civilian and military factions. After World War II, a long period of Peronist dictatorship was followed by a military junta that took power in 1976. Democracy returned in 1983, and numerous elections since then have underscored Argentina's progress in democratic consolidation. | Bolivia, named after independence fighter Simon BOLIVAR, broke away from Spanish rule in 1825; much of its subsequent history has consisted of a series of nearly 200 coups and countercoups. Democratic civilian rule was established in 1982, but leaders have faced difficult problems of deep-seated poverty, social unrest, and illegal drug production. In December 2005, Bolivians elected Movement Toward Socialism leader Evo MORALES president - by the widest margin of any leader since the restoration of civilian rule in 1982 - after he ran on a promise to change the country's traditional political class and empower the nation's poor majority. However, since taking office, his controversial strategies have exacerbated racial and economic tensions between the Amerindian populations of the Andean west and the non-indigenous communities of the eastern lowlands. |
Birth rate | 18.41 births/1,000 population (2001 est.) | 23.3 births/1,000 population (2006 est.) |
Budget | revenues:
$44 billion expenditures: $48 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (2000 est.) |
revenues: $2.848 billion
expenditures: $3.189 billion; including capital expenditures of $741 million (2005 est.) |
Capital | Buenos Aires | name: La Paz (adminstrative capital)
geographic coordinates: 16 30 S, 68 09 W time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time) note: Sucre (constitutional capital) |
Climate | mostly temperate; arid in southeast; subantarctic in southwest | varies with altitude; humid and tropical to cold and semiarid |
Coastline | 4,989 km | 0 km (landlocked) |
Constitution | 1 May 1853; revised August 1994 | 2 February 1967; revised in August 1994 |
Country name | conventional long form:
Argentine Republic conventional short form: Argentina local long form: Republica Argentina local short form: Argentina |
conventional long form: Republic of Bolivia
conventional short form: Bolivia local long form: Republica de Bolivia local short form: Bolivia |
Currency | Argentine peso (ARS) | - |
Death rate | 7.58 deaths/1,000 population (2001 est.) | 7.53 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.) |
Debt - external | $154 billion (2000 est.) | $6.309 billion (2005 est.) |
Diplomatic representation from the US | chief of mission:
Ambassador James D. WALSH embassy: Avenida Colombia 4300, 1425 Buenos Aires mailing address: international mail: use street address; APO address: Unit 4334, APO AA 34034 telephone: [54] (11) 4777-4533/4534 FAX: [54] (11) 4511-4997 |
chief of mission: Ambassador Philip S. GOLDBERG
embassy: Avenida Arce 2780, La Paz mailing address: P. O. Box 425, La Paz; APO AA 34032 telephone: [591] (2) 216-8000 FAX: [591] (2) 216-8111 |
Diplomatic representation in the US | chief of mission:
Ambassador Guillermo Enrique GONZALEZ chancery: 1600 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009 telephone: [1] (202) 238-6400 FAX: [1] (202) 332-3171 consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York |
chief of mission: Ambassador Gustavo GUZMAN Saldana
chancery: 3014 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008 telephone: [1] (202) 483-4410 FAX: [1] (202) 328-3712 consulate(s) general: Houston, Miami, New York, Oklahoma City, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, DC |
Disputes - international | claims UK-administered Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas); claims UK-administered South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; territorial claim in Antarctica partially overlaps British and Chilean claims | Chile rebuffs Bolivia's reactivated claim to restore the Atacama corridor, ceded to Chile in 1884, offering instead unrestricted but not sovereign maritime access through Chile for Bolivian natural gas and other commodities |
Economic aid - recipient | IMF offer of $13.7 billion (January 2001) | $221 million (2005 est.) |
Economy - overview | Argentina benefits from rich natural resources, a highly literate population, an export-oriented agricultural sector, and a diversified industrial base. However, when President Carlos MENEM took office in 1989, the country had piled up huge external debts, inflation had reached 200% per month, and output was plummeting. To combat the economic crisis, the government embarked on a path of trade liberalization, deregulation, and privatization. In 1991, it implemented radical monetary reforms which pegged the peso to the US dollar and limited the growth in the monetary base by law to the growth in reserves. Inflation fell sharply in subsequent years. In 1995, the Mexican peso crisis produced capital flight, the loss of banking system deposits, and a severe, but short-lived, recession; a series of reforms to bolster the domestic banking system followed. Real GDP growth recovered strongly, reaching 8% in 1997. In 1998, international financial turmoil caused by Russia's problems and increasing investor anxiety over Brazil produced the highest domestic interest rates in more than three years, halving the growth rate of the economy. Conditions worsened in 1999 with GDP falling by 3%. President Fernando DE LA RUA, who took office in December 1999, sponsored tax increases and spending cuts to reduce the deficit, which had ballooned to 2.5% of GDP in 1999. Growth in 2000 was a disappointing 0.8%, as both domestic and foreign investors remained skeptical of the government's ability to pay debts and maintain its fixed exchange rate with the US dollar. One bright spot at the start of 2001 was the IMF's offer of $13.7 billion in support. | Bolivia, long one of the poorest and least developed Latin American countries, reformed its economy after suffering a disastrous economic crisis in the early 1980s. The reforms spurred real GDP growth, which averaged 4% in the 1990s, and poverty rates fell. Economic growth, however, lagged again beginning in 1999 because of a global slowdown and homegrown factors such as political turmoil, civil unrest, and soaring fiscal deficits, all of which hurt investor confidence. In 2003, violent protests against the pro-foreign investment economic policies of President SANCHEZ DE LOZADA led to his resignation and the cancellation of plans to export Bolivia's newly discovered natural gas reserves to large northern hemisphere markets. In 2005, the government passed a controversial natural gas law that imposes on the oil and gas firms significantly higher taxes as well as new contracts that give the state control of their operations. Bolivian officials are in the process of implementing the law; meanwhile, foreign investors have stopped investing and have taken the first legal steps to secure their investments. Real GDP growth in 2003-05 - helped by increased demand for natural gas in neighboring Brazil - was positive, but still below the levels seen during the 1990s. Bolivia's fiscal position has improved in recent years, but the country remains dependent on foreign aid from multilateral lenders and foreign governments to meet budget shortfalls. In 2005, the G8 announced a $2 billion debt-forgiveness plan over the next few decades that should help reduce some fiscal pressures on the government in the near term. |
Electricity - consumption | 77.111 billion kWh (1999) | 3.963 billion kWh (2003) |
Electricity - exports | 1.08 billion kWh (1999) | 0 kWh (2003) |
Electricity - imports | 6.5 billion kWh (1999) | 10 million kWh (2003) |
Electricity - production | 77.087 billion kWh (1999) | 4.25 billion kWh (2003) |
Electricity - production by source | fossil fuel:
60.3% hydro: 30.7% nuclear: 8.75% other: 0.25% (1999) |
- |
Elevation extremes | lowest point:
Salinas Chicas -40 m (located on Peninsula Valdes) highest point: Cerro Aconcagua 6,960 m |
lowest point: Rio Paraguay 90 m
highest point: Nevado Sajama 6,542 m |
Environment - current issues | environmental problems (urban and rural) typical of an industrializing economy such as soil degradation, desertification, air pollution, and water pollution
note: Argentina is a world leader in setting voluntary greenhouse gas targets |
the clearing of land for agricultural purposes and the international demand for tropical timber are contributing to deforestation; soil erosion from overgrazing and poor cultivation methods (including slash-and-burn agriculture); desertification; loss of biodiversity; industrial pollution of water supplies used for drinking and irrigation |
Environment - international agreements | party to:
Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Marine Life Conservation |
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection |
Ethnic groups | white (mostly Spanish and Italian) 97%, mestizo, Amerindian, or other nonwhite groups 3% | Quechua 30%, mestizo (mixed white and Amerindian ancestry) 30%, Aymara 25%, white 15% |
Exchange rates | Argentine pesos per US dollar - 1.000 (fixed rate pegged to the US dollar) | bolivianos per US dollar - 8.0661 (2005), 7.9363 (2004), 7.6592 (2003), 7.17 (2002), 6.6069 (2001) |
Executive branch | chief of state:
President Fernando DE LA RUA (since 10 December 1999); Vice President Carlos "Chacho" ALVAREZ resigned 6 October 2000 and a replacement has not yet been named; note - the president is both the chief of state and head of government head of government: President Fernando DE LA RUA (since 10 December 1999); Vice President Carlos "Chacho" ALVAREZ resigned 6 October 2000 and a replacement has not yet been named; note - the president is both the chief of state and head of government cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket by popular vote for four-year terms; election last held 24 October 1999 (next to be held NA October 2003) election results: Fernando DE LA RUA elected president; percent of vote - 48.5% |
chief of state: President Juan Evo MORALES Ayma (since 22 January 2006); Vice President Alvaro GARCIA Linera (since 22 January 2006); note - the president is both chief of state and head of government
head of government: President Juan Evo MORALES Ayma (since 22 January 2006); Vice President Alvaro GARCIA Linera (since 22 January 2006); note - the president is both chief of state and head of government cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket by popular vote for a single five-year term; election last held 18 December 2005 (next to be held in 2010) election results: Juan Evo MORALES Ayma elected president; percent of vote - Juan Evo MORALES Ayma 53.7%; Jorge Fernando QUIROGA Ramirez 28.6%; Samuel DORIA MEDINA Arana 7.8%; Michiaki NAGATANI Morishit 6.5%; Felipe QUISPE Huanca 2.2%; Guildo ANGULA Cabrera 0.7% |
Exports | $26.5 billion (f.o.b., 2000 est.) | NA bbl/day |
Exports - commodities | edible oils, fuels and energy, cereals, feed, motor vehicles | natural gas, soybeans and soy products, crude petroleum, zinc ore, tin |
Exports - partners | Brazil 24%, EU 21%, US 11% (1999 est.) | Brazil 41.2%, US 14.1%, Colombia 8.8%, Argentina 7.6%, Peru 5.5% (2005) |
Fiscal year | calendar year | calendar year |
Flag description | three equal horizontal bands of light blue (top), white, and light blue; centered in the white band is a radiant yellow sun with a human face known as the Sun of May | three equal horizontal bands of red (top), yellow, and green with the coat of arms centered on the yellow band; similar to the flag of Ghana, which has a large black five-pointed star centered in the yellow band |
GDP | purchasing power parity - $476 billion (2000 est.) | - |
GDP - composition by sector | agriculture:
6% industry: 32% services: 62% (2000 est.) |
agriculture: 12.8%
industry: 35.2% services: 52% (2005 est.) |
GDP - per capita | purchasing power parity - $12,900 (2000 est.) | - |
GDP - real growth rate | 0.8% (2000 est.) | 4.1% (2005 est.) |
Geographic coordinates | 34 00 S, 64 00 W | 17 00 S, 65 00 W |
Geography - note | second-largest country in South America (after Brazil); strategic location relative to sea lanes between South Atlantic and South Pacific Oceans (Strait of Magellan, Beagle Channel, Drake Passage) | landlocked; shares control of Lago Titicaca, world's highest navigable lake (elevation 3,805 m), with Peru |
Highways | total:
215,434 km paved: 63,553 km (including 734 km of expressways) unpaved: 151,881 km (1998 est.) |
- |
Household income or consumption by percentage share | lowest 10%:
NA% highest 10%: NA% |
lowest 10%: 1.3%
highest 10%: 32% (1999) |
Illicit drugs | use as a transshipment country for cocaine headed for Europe and the US; increasing use as a money-laundering center; domestic consumption of drugs in urban centers is increasing | world's third-largest cultivator of coca (after Colombia and Peru) with an estimated 26,500 hectares under cultivation in August 2005, an 8% increase from 2004; intermediate coca products and cocaine exported mostly to or through Brazil, Argentina, and Chile to European drug markets; cultivation steadily increasing despite eradication and alternative crop programs; money-laundering activity related to narcotics trade, especially along the borders with Brazil and Paraguay |
Imports | $25.2 billion (f.o.b., 2000 est.) | NA bbl/day |
Imports - commodities | machinery and equipment, motor vehicles, chemicals, metal manufactures, plastics | petroleum products, plastics, paper, aircraft and aircraft parts, prepared foods, automobiles, insecticides, soybeans |
Imports - partners | EU 28%, US 22%, Brazil 21% (1999 est.) | Brazil 21.9%, Argentina 16.7%, US 13.8%, Chile 6.9%, Peru 6.5%, Japan 6.1%, China 5.8% (2005) |
Independence | 9 July 1816 (from Spain) | 6 August 1825 (from Spain) |
Industrial production growth rate | 1% (2000 est.) | 5.7% (2004 est.) |
Industries | food processing, motor vehicles, consumer durables, textiles, chemicals and petrochemicals, printing, metallurgy, steel | mining, smelting, petroleum, food and beverages, tobacco, handicrafts, clothing |
Infant mortality rate | 17.75 deaths/1,000 live births (2001 est.) | total: 51.77 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 55.31 deaths/1,000 live births female: 48.05 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.) |
Inflation rate (consumer prices) | -0.9% (2000 est.) | 5.4% (2005 est.) |
International organization participation | AfDB, Australia Group, BCIE, BIS, CCC, ECLAC, FAO, G-6, G-11, G-15, G-19, G-24, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA, Mercosur, MINURSO, MIPONUH, MTCR, NSG, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIKOM, UNMEE, UNMIBH, UNMIK, UNMOP, UNTSO, UNU, UPU, WCL, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO, ZC | CAN, CSN, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, LAES, LAIA, Mercosur (associate), MIGA, MINUSTAH, MONUC, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMISET, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO |
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) | 33 (2000) | - |
Irrigated land | 17,000 sq km (1993 est.) | 1,320 sq km (2003) |
Judicial branch | Supreme Court or Corte Suprema (the nine Supreme Court judges are appointed by the president with approval by the Senate) | Supreme Court or Corte Suprema (judges appointed for 10-year terms by National Congress); District Courts (one in each department); provincial and local courts (to try minor cases) |
Labor force | 15 million (1999) | 4.22 million (2005 est.) |
Labor force - by occupation | agriculture NA%, industry NA%, services NA% | agriculture: NA%
industry: NA% services: NA% |
Land boundaries | total:
9,665 km border countries: Bolivia 832 km, Brazil 1,224 km, Chile 5,150 km, Paraguay 1,880 km, Uruguay 579 km |
total: 6,743 km
border countries: Argentina 832 km, Brazil 3,400 km, Chile 861 km, Paraguay 750 km, Peru 900 km |
Land use | arable land:
9% permanent crops: 1% permanent pastures: 52% forests and woodland: 19% other: 19% (1993 est.) |
arable land: 2.78%
permanent crops: 0.19% other: 97.03% (2005) |
Languages | Spanish (official), English, Italian, German, French | Spanish (official), Quechua (official), Aymara (official) |
Legal system | mixture of US and West European legal systems; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction | based on Spanish law and Napoleonic Code; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction |
Legislative branch | bicameral National Congress or Congreso Nacional consists of the Senate (72 seats; formerly, three members appointed by each of the provincial legislatures; presently transitioning to one-third of the members being elected every two years to six-year terms) and the Chamber of Deputies (257 seats; one-half of the members elected every two years to four-year terms)
elections: Senate - transition phase will begin in the 2001 elections when all seats will be fully contested; winners will randomly draw to determine whether they will serve a two-year, four-year, or full six-year term, beginning a rotating cycle renovating one-third of the body every two years; Chamber of Deputies - last held 24 October 1999 (next to be held NA October 2001) election results: Senate - percent of vote by bloc or party - NA%; seats by bloc or party - Peronist 40, UCR 20, Frepaso 1, other 11; Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by bloc or party - NA%; seats by bloc or party - Alliance 124 (UCR 85, Frepaso 36, others 3), Peronist 101, AR 12, other 20 |
bicameral National Congress or Congreso Nacional consists of Chamber of Senators or Camara de Senadores (27 seats; members are elected by proportional representation from party lists to serve five-year terms) and Chamber of Deputies or Camara de Diputados (130 seats; 69 are directly elected from their districts and 61 are elected by proportional representation from party lists to serve five-year terms)
elections: Chamber of Senators and Chamber of Deputies - last held 18 December 2005 (next to be held in 2010) election results: Chamber of Senators - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - PODEMOS 13, MAS 12, UN 1, MNR 1; Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - MAS 73, PODEMOS 43, UN 8, MNR 6 |
Life expectancy at birth | total population:
75.26 years male: 71.88 years female: 78.82 years (2001 est.) |
total population: 65.84 years
male: 63.21 years female: 68.61 years (2006 est.) |
Literacy | definition:
age 15 and over can read and write total population: 96.2% male: 96.2% female: 96.2% (1995 est.) |
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 87.2% male: 93.1% female: 81.6% (2003 est.) |
Location | Southern South America, bordering the South Atlantic Ocean, between Chile and Uruguay | Central South America, southwest of Brazil |
Map references | South America | South America |
Maritime claims | contiguous zone:
24 NM continental shelf: 200 NM or to the edge of the continental margin exclusive economic zone: 200 NM territorial sea: 12 NM |
none (landlocked) |
Merchant marine | total:
26 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 185,355 GRT/281,475 DWT ships by type: cargo 9, petroleum tanker 11, railcar carrier 1, refrigerated cargo 2, roll on/roll off 1, short-sea passenger 2 (2000 est.) |
total: 24 ships (1000 GRT or over) 127,297 GRT/198,525 DWT
by type: bulk carrier 2, cargo 8, chemical tanker 1, passenger/cargo 3, petroleum tanker 10 foreign-owned: 10 (Argentina 1, China 1, Egypt 2, Iran 1, Singapore 3, Taiwan 1, Yemen 1) (2006) |
Military branches | Argentine Army, Navy of the Argentine Republic (includes Naval Aviation, Marines, and Coast Guard), Argentine Air Force, National Gendarmerie, National Aeronautical Police Force | Bolivian Armed Forces: Bolivian Army (Ejercito Boliviano), Bolivian Navy (Armada Boliviana; includes marines), Bolivian Air Force (Fuerza Aerea Boliviana, FAB) (2006) |
Military expenditures - dollar figure | $4.3 billion (FY99) | $130 million (2005 est.) |
Military expenditures - percent of GDP | 1.3% (FY99) | 1.4% (2005 est.) |
Military manpower - availability | males age 15-49:
9,404,434 (2001 est.) |
- |
Military manpower - fit for military service | males age 15-49:
7,625,425 (2001 est.) |
- |
Military manpower - military age | 20 years of age | - |
Military manpower - reaching military age annually | males:
335,085 (2001 est.) |
- |
National holiday | Revolution Day, 25 May (1810) | Independence Day, 6 August (1825) |
Nationality | noun:
Argentine(s) adjective: Argentine |
noun: Bolivian(s)
adjective: Bolivian |
Natural hazards | San Miguel de Tucuman and Mendoza areas in the Andes subject to earthquakes; pamperos are violent windstorms that can strike the Pampas and northeast; heavy flooding | flooding in the northeast (March-April) |
Natural resources | fertile plains of the Pampas, lead, zinc, tin, copper, iron ore, manganese, petroleum, uranium | tin, natural gas, petroleum, zinc, tungsten, antimony, silver, iron, lead, gold, timber, hydropower |
Net migration rate | 0.64 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2001 est.) | -1.22 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.) |
Pipelines | crude oil 4,090 km; petroleum products 2,900 km; natural gas 9,918 km | gas 4,860 km; liquid petroleum gas 47 km; oil 2,475 km; refined products 1,589 km; unknown (oil/water) 247 km (2006) |
Political parties and leaders | Action for the Republic or AR [Domingo CAVALLO]; Front for a Country in Solidarity or Frepaso (a four-party coalition) [Carlos ALVAREZ]; Justicialist Party or PJ [Carlos Saul MENEM] (Peronist umbrella political organization); Radical Civic Union or UCR [Raul ALFONSIN]; several provincial parties | Bolivian Socialist Falange or FSB [Romel PANTOJA]; Civic Solidarity Union or UCS [Johnny FERNANDEZ]; Free Bolivia Movement or MBL [Franz BARRIOS]; Marshal of Ayacucho Institutional Vanguard or VIMA [Freddy ZABALA]; Movement of the Revolutionary Left or MIR [Jaime PAZ Zamora]; Movement Toward Socialism or MAS [Juan Evo MORALES Ayma]; Movement Without Fear or MSM [Juan DEL GRANADO]; National Revolutionary Movement or MNR [Gonzalo SANCHEZ DE LOZADA]; New Republican Force or NFR [Manfred REYES-VILLA]; Pachakuti Indigenous Movement or MIP [Felipe QUISPE Huanca]; Poder Democratico Nacional or PODEMOS [Jorge Fernando QUIROGA Ramirez]; Socialist Party or PS [Jeres JUSTINIANO] |
Political pressure groups and leaders | Argentine Association of Pharmaceutical Labs (CILFA); Argentine Industrial Union (manufacturers' association); Argentine Rural Society (large landowners' association); business organizations; General Confederation of Labor or CGT (Peronist-leaning umbrella labor organization); Peronist-dominated labor movement; Roman Catholic Church; students | Cocalero groups; indigenous organizations; labor unions; Sole Confederation of Campesino Workers of Bolivia or CSUTCB [Roman LOAYZA] |
Population | 37,384,816 (July 2001 est.) | 8,989,046 (July 2006 est.) |
Population below poverty line | 37% (1999 est.) | 64% (2004 est.) |
Population growth rate | 1.15% (2001 est.) | 1.45% (2006 est.) |
Ports and harbors | Bahia Blanca, Buenos Aires, Comodoro Rivadavia, Concepcion del Uruguay, La Plata, Mar del Plata, Necochea, Rio Gallegos, Rosario, Santa Fe, Ushuaia | - |
Radio broadcast stations | AM 260 (including 10 inactive stations), FM NA (probably more than 1,000, mostly unlicensed), shortwave 6 (1998) | AM 171, FM 73, shortwave 77 (1999) |
Radios | 24.3 million (1997) | - |
Railways | total:
33,744 km (167 km electrified) broad gauge: 20,594 km 1.676-m gauge (141 km electrified) standard gauge: 2,739 km 1.435-m gauge (26 km electrified) narrow gauge: 10,154 km 1.000-m gauge; 257 km 0.750-m gauge (2000) |
total: 3,519 km
narrow gauge: 3,519 km 1.000-m gauge (2005) |
Religions | nominally Roman Catholic 92% (less than 20% practicing), Protestant 2%, Jewish 2%, other 4% | Roman Catholic 95%, Protestant (Evangelical Methodist) 5% |
Sex ratio | at birth:
1.05 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2001 est.) |
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 0.96 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.8 male(s)/female total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.) |
Suffrage | 18 years of age; universal and mandatory | 18 years of age, universal and compulsory (married); 21 years of age, universal and compulsory (single) |
Telephone system | general assessment:
by opening the telecommunications market to competition and foreign investment with the "Telecommunications Liberalization Plan of 1998", Argentina encouraged the growth of modern telecommunication technology; fiber-optic cable trunk lines are being installed between all major cities; the major networks are entirely digital and the availability of telephone service is being improved; however, telephone density is presently minimal, and making telephone service universally available will take some time domestic: microwave radio relay, fiber-optic cable, and a domestic satellite system with 40 earth stations serve the trunk network; more than 110,000 pay telephones are installed and mobile telephone use is rapidly expanding international: satellite earth stations - 8 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); Atlantis II and Unisur submarine cables; two international gateways near Buenos Aires (1999) |
general assessment: new subscribers face bureaucratic difficulties; most telephones are concentrated in La Paz and other cities; mobile cellular telephone use expanding rapidly
domestic: primary trunk system, which is being expanded, employs digital microwave radio relay; some areas are served by fiber-optic cable; mobile cellular systems are being expanded international: country code - 591; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) |
Telephones - main lines in use | 7.5 million (1998) | 646,300 (2005) |
Telephones - mobile cellular | 3 million (December 1999) | 2.421 million (2005) |
Television broadcast stations | 42 (plus 444 repeaters) (1997) | 48 (1997) |
Terrain | rich plains of the Pampas in northern half, flat to rolling plateau of Patagonia in south, rugged Andes along western border | rugged Andes Mountains with a highland plateau (Altiplano), hills, lowland plains of the Amazon Basin |
Total fertility rate | 2.44 children born/woman (2001 est.) | 2.85 children born/woman (2006 est.) |
Unemployment rate | 15% (December 2000) | 8% in urban areas; widespread underemployment (2005 est.) |
Waterways | 10,950 km | 10,000 km (commercially navigable) (2005) |