Colombia (2001) | World (2003) | |
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Administrative divisions | 32 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento) and 1 capital district* (distrito capital); Amazonas, Antioquia, Arauca, Atlantico, Bolivar, Boyaca, Caldas, Caqueta, Casanare, Cauca, Cesar, Choco, Cordoba, Cundinamarca, Guainia, Guaviare, Huila, La Guajira, Magdalena, Meta, Narino, Norte de Santander, Putumayo, Quindio, Risaralda, San Andres y Providencia, Distrito Capital de Santa Fe de Bogota*, Santander, Sucre, Tolima, Valle del Cauca, Vaupes, Vichada | 268 nations, dependent areas, other, and miscellaneous entries |
Age structure | 0-14 years:
31.88% (male 6,507,282; female 6,354,454) 15-64 years: 63.37% (male 12,452,182; female 13,117,707) 65 years and over: 4.75% (male 859,967; female 1,057,796) (2001 est.) |
0-14 years: 29.2% (male 932,581,592; female 885,688,851)
15-64 years: 63.7% (male 2,009,997,089; female 1,964,938,201) 65 years and over: 7.1% (male 193,549,180; female 247,067,032) (2003 est.) note: some countries do not maintain age structure information, thus a slight discrepancy exists between the total world population and the total for world age structure |
Agriculture - products | coffee, cut flowers, bananas, rice, tobacco, corn, sugarcane, cocoa beans, oilseed, vegetables; forest products; shrimp | - |
Airports | 1,091 (2000 est.) | - |
Airports - with paved runways | total:
92 over 3,047 m: 2 2,438 to 3,047 m: 8 1,524 to 2,437 m: 38 914 to 1,523 m: 36 under 914 m: 8 (2000 est.) |
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Airports - with unpaved runways | total:
999 2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 1,524 to 2,437 m: 64 914 to 1,523 m: 321 under 914 m: 613 (2000 est.) |
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Area | total:
1,138,910 sq km land: 1,038,700 sq km water: 100,210 sq km note: includes Isla de Malpelo, Roncador Cay, Serrana Bank, and Serranilla Bank |
total: 510.072 million sq km
land: 148.94 million sq km water: 361.132 million sq km note: 70.8% of the world's surface is water, 29.2% is land |
Area - comparative | slightly less than three times the size of Montana | land area about 16 times the size of the US |
Background | Colombia was one of the three countries that emerged from the collapse of Gran Colombia in 1830 (the others being Ecuador and Venezuela). A 40-year insurgent campaign to overthrow the Colombian Government escalated during the 1990s, undergirded in part by funds from the drug trade. Although the violence is deadly and large swaths of the countryside are under guerrilla influence, the movement lacks the military strength or popular support necessary to overthrow the government. While Bogota continues to try to negotiate a settlement, neighboring countries worry about the violence spilling over their borders. | Globally, the 20th century was marked by: (a) two devastating world wars; (b) the Great Depression of the 1930s; (c) the end of vast colonial empires; (d) rapid advances in science and technology, from the first airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina (US) to the landing on the moon; (e) the Cold War between the Western alliance and the Warsaw Pact nations; (f) a sharp rise in living standards in North America, Europe, and Japan; (g) increased concerns about the environment, including loss of forests, shortages of energy and water, the decline in biological diversity, and air pollution; (h) the onset of the AIDS epidemic; and (i) the ultimate emergence of the US as the only world superpower. The planet's population continues to explode: from 1 billion in 1820, to 2 billion in 1930, 3 billion in 1960, 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1988, and 6 billion in 2000. For the 21st century, the continued exponential growth in science and technology raises both hopes (e.g., advances in medicine) and fears (e.g., development of even more lethal weapons of war). |
Birth rate | 22.41 births/1,000 population (2001 est.) | 20.43 births/1,000 population (2003 est.) |
Budget | revenues:
$22 billion expenditures: $24 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (2000 est.) |
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Capital | Bogota | - |
Climate | tropical along coast and eastern plains; cooler in highlands | two large areas of polar climates separated by two rather narrow temperate zones form a wide equatorial band of tropical to subtropical climates |
Coastline | 3,208 km (Caribbean Sea 1,760 km, North Pacific Ocean 1,448 km) | 356,000 km |
Constitution | 5 July 1991 | - |
Country name | conventional long form:
Republic of Colombia conventional short form: Colombia local long form: Republica de Colombia local short form: Colombia |
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Currency | Colombian peso (COP) | - |
Death rate | 5.69 deaths/1,000 population (2001 est.) | 8.83 deaths/1,000 population (2003 est.) |
Debt - external | $34 billion (2000 est.) | $2 trillion for less developed countries (2002 est.) |
Diplomatic representation from the US | chief of mission:
Ambassador Anne W. PATTERSON embassy: Calle 22D-BIS, numbers 47-51, Apartado Aereo 3831 mailing address: Carrera 45 #22D-45, Bogota, D.C., APO AA 34038 telephone: [57] (1) 315-0811 FAX: [57] (1) 315-2197 |
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Diplomatic representation in the US | chief of mission:
Ambassador Luis Alberto MORENO Mejia chancery: 2118 Leroy Place NW, Washington, DC 20008 telephone: [1] (202) 387-8338 FAX: [1] (202) 232-8643 consulate(s) general: Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco, San Juan (Puerto Rico), and Washington, DC consulate(s): Atlanta |
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Disputes - international | maritime boundary dispute with Venezuela in the Gulf of Venezuela; territorial disputes with Nicaragua over Archipelago de San Andres y Providencia and Quita Sueno Bank | Globally, there are over 250,000 km of international land boundaries that separate the world's 192 independent states, along with 70 dependencies, areas of special sovereignty, and other miscellaneous entities. Maritime states have claimed limits and have so far established over 130 maritime boundaries and joint development zones to allocate ocean resources and to provide for their national security at sea. On land, ethnicity, culture, race, religion, and language have divided states into separate political entities as much as history, physical terrain, political fiat, or conquest, resulting in sometimes arbitrary and imposed boundaries. All of these factors have contributed to a wide array of boundary, borderland, and territorial disagreements that vary in intensity from unresolved or dormant to outright war. Territorial disputes may evolve from historical and/or cultural animosities, or they may be brought on by resource competition. Ethnic clashes continue to be responsible for territorial fragmentation around the world. Undemarcated, indefinite, porous, and unmanaged boundaries encourage illegal cross-border activities, uncontrolled migration, and political confrontation over boundary allocations. Other sources of contention include the use of water and mineral (especially petroleum) resources, fisheries, dams, and nuclear power plants. Many islands or island groups are also disputed, including those at sea and in streams. Nonetheless, many nations are actively cooperating to clarify, delineate, and demarcate their international borders. The tragic aspect of international discord is the impact on the sustenance and welfare of populations caught in the conflict. It is frequently left to members of the world community to cope with enormous refugee situations, and the resultant hunger, disease, and impoverishment that they create. |
Economic aid - recipient | $40.7 million (1995) | official development assistance (ODA) $50 billion |
Economy - overview | Colombia is poised for muted growth in the next several years, marking continued recovery from the severe 1999 recession when GDP fell by about 4%. President PASTRANA's well-respected economic team is working to keep the economy on track, maintaining low interest rates, for example. In accordance with its IMF loan agreement, the administration also is taking steps to improve the public sector's fiscal health. However, many challenges to improved prosperity remain. Unemployment was stuck at a record 20% in 2000, contributing to the extreme inequality in income distribution. Two of Colombia's leading exports, oil and coffee, face an uncertain future; new exploration is needed to offset declining oil production, while coffee harvests and prices are depressed. The lack of public security is a key concern for investors, making progress in the government's peace negotiations with insurgent groups an important driver of economic performance. Colombia is looking for continued support from the international community to boost economic and peace prospects. | Growth in global output (gross world product, GWP) fell from 4.8% in 2000 to 2.2% in 2001 and 2.7% in 2002. The causes: sluggishness in the US economy (21% of GWP) and in the 15 EU economies (19% of GWP); continued stagnation in the Japanese economy (7.2% of GWP); and spillover effects in the less developed regions of the world. China, the second-largest economy in the world (12% of GWP), proved an exception, continuing its rapid annual growth, officially announced as 8% but estimated by many observers as perhaps two percentage points lower. Russia (2.6% of GWP), with 4% growth, continued to make uneven progress, its GDP per capita still only one-third that of the leading industrial nations. The other 14 successor nations of the USSR and the other old Warsaw Pact nations again experienced widely divergent growth rates; the three Baltic nations continued as strong performers, in the 5% range of growth. The developing nations also varied in their growth results, with many countries facing population increases that erode gains in output. Externally, the nation-state, as a bedrock economic-political institution, is steadily losing control over international flows of people, goods, funds, and technology. Internally, the central government often finds its control over resources slipping as separatist regional movements - typically based on ethnicity - gain momentum, e.g., in many of the successor states of the former Soviet Union, in the former Yugoslavia, in India, in Indonesia, and in Canada. Externally, the central government is losing decision-making powers to international bodies. In Western Europe, governments face the difficult political problem of channeling resources away from welfare programs in order to increase investment and strengthen incentives to seek employment. The addition of 80 million people each year to an already overcrowded globe is exacerbating the problems of pollution, desertification, underemployment, epidemics, and famine. Because of their own internal problems and priorities, the industrialized countries devote insufficient resources to deal effectively with the poorer areas of the world, which, at least from the economic point of view, are becoming further marginalized. The introduction of the euro as the common currency of much of Western Europe in January 1999, while paving the way for an integrated economic powerhouse, poses economic risks because of varying levels of income and cultural and political differences among the participating nations. The terrorist attacks on the US on 11 September 2001 accentuate a further growing risk to global prosperity, illustrated, for example, by the reallocation of resources away from investment to anti-terrorist programs. The opening of war in March 2003 between a US-led coalition and Iraq added new uncertainties to global economic prospects. (For specific economic developments in each country of the world in 2002, see the individual country entries.) |
Electricity - consumption | 40.532 billion kWh (1999) | 13.93 trillion kWh (2001 est.) |
Electricity - exports | 27 million kWh (1999) | - |
Electricity - imports | 35 million kWh (1999) | - |
Electricity - production | 43.574 billion kWh (1999) | 14.85 trillion kWh (2001 est.) |
Electricity - production by source | fossil fuel:
22.27% hydro: 76.19% nuclear: 0% other: 1.54% (1999) |
fossil fuel: NA%
hydro: NA% nuclear: NA% other: NA% |
Elevation extremes | lowest point:
Pacific Ocean 0 m highest point: Pico Cristobal Colon 5,775 m note: nearby Pico Simon Bolivar also has the same elevation |
lowest point: Bentley Subglacial Trench -2,540 m
note: in the oceanic realm, Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench is the lowest point, lying -10,924 m below the surface of the Pacific Ocean highest point: Mount Everest 8,850 m (1999 est.) |
Environment - current issues | deforestation; soil damage from overuse of pesticides; air pollution, especially in Bogota, from vehicle emissions | large areas subject to overpopulation, industrial disasters, pollution (air, water, acid rain, toxic substances), loss of vegetation (overgrazing, deforestation, desertification), loss of wildlife, soil degradation, soil depletion, erosion |
Environment - international agreements | party to:
Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Life Conservation, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping |
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Ethnic groups | mestizo 58%, white 20%, mulatto 14%, black 4%, mixed black-Amerindian 3%, Amerindian 1% | - |
Exchange rates | Colombian pesos per US dollar - 2,241.43 (January 2001), 2087.90 (2000), 1,756.23 (1999), 1,426.04 (1998), 1,140.96 (1997), 1,036.69 (1996) | - |
Executive branch | chief of state:
President Andres PASTRANA (since 7 August 1998); Vice President Gustavo BELL Lemus (since 7 August 1998); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of government head of government: President Andres PASTRANA (since 7 August 1998); Vice President Gustavo BELL Lemus (since 7 August 1998); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of government cabinet: Cabinet Cabinet consists of a coalition of the two dominant parties - the PL and PSC - and independents elections: president elected by popular vote for a four-year term; election last held 31 May 1998 (next to be held NA May 2002); vice president elected by popular vote for a four-year term in a new procedure that replaces the traditional designation of vice presidents by newly elected presidents; election last held 31 May 1998 (next to be held NA May 2002) election results: no candidate received more than 50% of the total vote, therefore, a run-off election to select a president from the two leading candidates was held 21 June 1998; Andres PASTRANA elected president; percent of vote - 50.3%; Gustavo BELL elected vice president; percent of vote - 50.3% |
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Exports | $14.5 billion (f.o.b., 2000 est.) | 703.9 billion cu m (2001 est.) |
Exports - commodities | petroleum, coffee, coal, apparel, bananas, cut flowers | the whole range of industrial and agricultural goods and services |
Exports - partners | US 50%, EU 14%, Andean Community of Nations 16%, Japan 2% (2000 est.) | US 17.4%, Germany 7.6%, UK 5.4%, France 5.1%, Japan 4.8%, China 4% (2002) |
Fiscal year | calendar year | - |
Flag description | three horizontal bands of yellow (top, double-width), blue, and red; similar to the flag of Ecuador, which is longer and bears the Ecuadorian coat of arms superimposed in the center | - |
GDP | purchasing power parity - $250 billion (2000 est.) | GWP (gross world product) - purchasing power parity - $49 trillion (2002 est.) |
GDP - composition by sector | agriculture:
19% industry: 26% services: 55% (1999 est.) |
agriculture: 4%
industry: 32% services: 64% (2002 est.) |
GDP - per capita | purchasing power parity - $6,200 (2000 est.) | purchasing power parity - $7,900 (2002 est.) |
GDP - real growth rate | 3% (2000 est.) | 2.7% (2001 est.) |
Geographic coordinates | 4 00 N, 72 00 W | - |
Geography - note | only South American country with coastlines on both North Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea | the world is now thought to be about 4.55 billion years old, just about one-third of the 13-billion-year age estimated for the universe |
Highways | total:
110,000 km paved: 26,000 km unpaved: 84,000 km (2000) |
total: NA km
paved: NA km unpaved: NA km |
Household income or consumption by percentage share | lowest 10%:
1% highest 10%: 44% (1999) |
lowest 10%: NA%
highest 10%: NA% |
Illicit drugs | illicit producer of coca, opium poppies, and cannabis; world's leading coca cultivator (cultivation of coca in 1999 - 122,500 hectares, a 20.3% increase over 1998); cultivation of opium in 1999 increased to 7,500 hectares from 6,100 hectares in 1998; potential production of opium in 1999 - 75 metric tons, a 25% increase over 1998; potential production of heroin in 1999 - nearly 8 metric tons, as compared with 6 tons in 1998; the world's largest processor of coca derivatives into cocaine; supplier of about 90% of the cocaine to the US and the great majority of cocaine to other international drug markets, and an important supplier of heroin to the US market; active aerial eradication program | cocaine: worldwide, coca is grown on an estimated 205,450 hectares - almost exclusively in South America with 70% in Colombia; potential cocaine production during 2002 is estimated at 938 metric tons (or 1,200 metric tons of export quality cocaine at an average of 78% purity); coca eradication programs continue in Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru, and 292 metric tons of export quality cocaine are documented to have been seized in 2002; consumption of export quality cocaine is estimated to have been 875 metric tons
opiates: cultivation of opium poppy occurred on an estimated 141,213 hectares in 2002 and potentially produced 2,183 metric tons of opium - which conceivably could be converted to the equivalent of 238 metric tons of pure heroin; opium eradication programs have been undertaken in Afghanistan, Burma, Colombia, Mexico, Pakistan, Thailand, and Vietnam, and the annual average for opiates seized worldwide over the past five years (1998-2002) has been 45 metric tons of pure heroin equivalent; estimates for average annual consumption over this time period are 315 metric tons pure heroin equivalent |
Imports | $12.4 billion (f.o.b., 2000 est.) | 697.5 billion cu m (2001 est.) |
Imports - commodities | industrial equipment, transportation equipment, consumer goods, chemicals, paper products, fuels, electricity | the whole range of industrial and agricultural goods and services |
Imports - partners | US 35%, EU 16%, Andean Community of Nations 15%, Japan 5% (2000 est.) | US 11.2%, Germany 9.2%, China 7%, Japan 6.8%, France 4.7%, UK 4% (2002) |
Independence | 20 July 1810 (from Spain) | - |
Industrial production growth rate | 11% (2000 est.) | 3% (2002 est.) |
Industries | textiles, food processing, oil, clothing and footwear, beverages, chemicals, cement; gold, coal, emeralds | dominated by the onrush of technology, especially in computers, robotics, telecommunications, and medicines and medical equipment; most of these advances take place in OECD nations; only a small portion of non-OECD countries have succeeded in rapidly adjusting to these technological forces; the accelerated development of new industrial (and agricultural) technology is complicating already grim environmental problems |
Infant mortality rate | 23.96 deaths/1,000 live births (2001 est.) | total: 51.38 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 53.81 deaths/1,000 live births female: 48.83 deaths/1,000 live births (2003 est.) |
Inflation rate (consumer prices) | 9% (2000) | developed countries 1% to 4% typically; developing countries 5% to 60% typically; national inflation rates vary widely in individual cases, from declining prices in Japan to hyperinflation in several Third World countries |
International organization participation | BCIE, CAN, Caricom (observer), CCC, CDB, ECLAC, FAO, G- 3, G-11, 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, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UN Security Council (temporary), UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNU, UPU, WCL, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO | - |
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) | 18 (2000) | 10,350 (2000 est.) |
Irrigated land | 5,300 sq km (1993 est.) | 2,714,320 sq km (1998 est.) |
Judicial branch | four, coequal, supreme judicial organs; Supreme Court of Justice or Corte Suprema de Justical (highest court of criminal law; judges are selected from the nominees of the Higher Council of Justice for eight-year terms); Council of State (highest court of administrative law, judges are selected from the nominees of the Higher Council of Justice for eight-year terms); Constitutional Court (guards integrity and supremacy of the constitution, rules on constitutionality of laws, amendments to the constitution, and international treaties); Higher Council of Justice (administers and disciplines the civilian judiciary; members of the disciplinary chamber resolve jurisdictional conflicts arising between other courts; members are elected by three sister courts and Congress for eight-year terms) | - |
Labor force | 18.3 million (1999 est.) | NA |
Labor force - by occupation | services 46%, agriculture 30%, industry 24% (1990) | agriculture NA%, industry NA%, services NA% |
Land boundaries | total:
6,004 km border countries: Brazil 1,643 km, Ecuador 590 km, Panama 225 km, Peru 1,496 km (est.), Venezuela 2,050 km |
the land boundaries in the world total 250,472 km (not counting shared boundaries twice) |
Land use | arable land:
4% permanent crops: 1% permanent pastures: 39% forests and woodland: 48% other: 8% (1993 est.) |
arable land: 10.58%
permanent crops: 1% other: 88.42% (1998 est.) |
Languages | Spanish | Chinese, Mandarin 14.37%, Hindi 6.02%, English 5.61%, Spanish 5.59%, Bengali 3.4%, Portuguese 2.63%, Russian 2.75%, Japanese 2.06%, German, Standard 1.64%, Korean 1.28%, French 1.27% (2000 est.)
note: percents are for "first language" speakers only |
Legal system | based on Spanish law; a new criminal code modeled after US procedures was enacted in 1992-93; judicial review of executive and legislative acts; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations | all members of the UN plus Switzerland are parties to the statute that established the International Court of Justice (ICJ) or World Court |
Legislative branch | bicameral Congress or Congreso consists of the Senate or Senado (102 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms) and the House of Representatives or Camara de Representantes (163 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
elections: Senate - last held 8 March 1998 (next to be held NA March 2002); House of Representatives - last held 8 March 1998 (next to be held NA March 2002) election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - PL 50%, PSC 24%, smaller parties (many aligned with conservatives) 26%; seats by party - PL 58, PSC 28, smaller parties 16; House of Representatives - percent of vote by party - PL 52%, PSC 17%, other 31%; seats by party - PL 98, PSC 52, indigenous parties 2, others 11 |
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Life expectancy at birth | total population:
70.57 years male: 66.71 years female: 74.55 years (2001 est.) |
total population: 63.95 years
male: 62 years female: 70.23 years (2003 est.) |
Literacy | definition:
age 15 and over can read and write total population: 91.3% male: 91.2% female: 91.4% (1995 est.) |
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 77% male: 83% female: 71% (1995 est.) |
Location | Northern South America, bordering the Caribbean Sea, between Panama and Venezuela, and bordering the North Pacific Ocean, between Ecuador and Panama | - |
Map references | South America, Central America and the Caribbean | Physical Map of the World, Political Map of the World, Standard Time Zones of the World |
Maritime claims | continental shelf:
200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation exclusive economic zone: 200 NM territorial sea: 12 NM |
a variety of situations exist, but in general, most countries make the following claims: contiguous zone - 24 NM; continental shelf - 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation, or 200 NM or to the edge of the continental margin; exclusive fishing zone - 200 NM; exclusive economic zone - 200 NM; territorial sea - 12 NM; boundary situations with neighboring states prevent many countries from extending their fishing or economic zones to a full 200 NM; 43 nations and other areas that are landlocked include Afghanistan, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Czech Republic, Ethiopia, Holy See (Vatican City), Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malawi, Mali, Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal, Niger, Paraguay, Rwanda, San Marino, Slovakia, Swaziland, Switzerland, Tajikistan, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan, West Bank, Zambia, Zimbabwe; two of these, Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan, are doubly landlocked |
Merchant marine | total:
13 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 53,322 GRT/69,444 DWT ships by type: bulk 5, cargo 4, container 1, multi-functional large-load carrier 1, petroleum tanker 2 (2000 est.) |
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Military branches | Army (Ejercito Nacional), Navy (Armada Nacional, includes Marines and Coast Guard), Air Force (Fuerza Aerea Colombiana), National Police (Policia Nacional) | - |
Military expenditures - dollar figure | $3 billion (FY00) | aggregate real expenditure on arms worldwide in 1999 remained at approximately the 1998 level, about three-quarters of a trillion dollars (1999 est.) |
Military expenditures - percent of GDP | 3.4% (FY00) | roughly 2% of gross world product (1999 est.) |
Military manpower - availability | males age 15-49:
10,779,148 (2001 est.) |
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Military manpower - fit for military service | males age 15-49:
7,205,211 (2001 est.) |
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Military manpower - military age | 18 years of age | - |
Military manpower - reaching military age annually | males:
379,295 (2001 est.) |
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National holiday | Independence Day, 20 July (1810) | - |
Nationality | noun:
Colombian(s) adjective: Colombian |
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Natural hazards | highlands subject to volcanic eruptions; occasional earthquakes; periodic droughts | large areas subject to severe weather (tropical cyclones), natural disasters (earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions) |
Natural resources | petroleum, natural gas, coal, iron ore, nickel, gold, copper, emeralds, hydropower | the rapid depletion of nonrenewable mineral resources, the depletion of forest areas and wetlands, the extinction of animal and plant species, and the deterioration in air and water quality (especially in Eastern Europe, the former USSR, and China) pose serious long-term problems that governments and peoples are only beginning to address |
Net migration rate | -0.33 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2001 est.) | - |
Pipelines | crude oil 3,585 km; petroleum products 1,350 km; natural gas 830 km; natural gas liquids 125 km | - |
Political parties and leaders | Conservative Party or PSC [Ciro RAMIREZ Anzon]; Liberal Party or PL [Luis Guillermo VELEZ]; Patriotic Union or UP is a legal political party formed by Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC and Colombian Communist Party or PCC [Jaime CAICEDO]; 19 of April Movement or M-19 [Antonio NAVARRO Wolff] | - |
Political pressure groups and leaders | two largest insurgent groups active in Colombia - National Liberation Army or ELN and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC; largest paramilitary group is United Self-Defense Groups of Colombia or AUC | - |
Population | 40,349,388 (July 2001 est.) | 6,302,309,691 (July 2003 est.) |
Population below poverty line | 55% (1999) | - |
Population growth rate | 1.64% (2001 est.) | 1.17% (2003 est.) |
Ports and harbors | Bahia de Portete, Barranquilla, Buenaventura, Cartagena, Leticia, Puerto Bolivar, San Andres, Santa Marta, Tumaco, Turbo | Chiba, Houston, Kawasaki, Kobe, Marseille, Mina' al Ahmadi (Kuwait), New Orleans, New York, Rotterdam, Yokohama |
Radio broadcast stations | AM 454, FM 34, shortwave 27 (1999) | AM NA, FM NA, shortwave NA |
Radios | 21 million (1997) | - |
Railways | total:
3,304 km standard gauge: 150 km 1.435-m gauge (connects Cerrejon coal mines to maritime port at Bahia de Portete) narrow gauge: 3,154 km 0.914-m gauge (major sections not in use) (2000) |
total: 1,122,650 km includes about 190,000 to 195,000 km of electrified routes of which 147,760 km are in Europe, 24,509 km in the Far East, 11,050 km in Africa, 4,223 km in South America, and 4,160 km in North America; note - fastest speed in daily service is 300 km/hr attained by France's Societe Nationale des Chemins-de-Fer Francais (SNCF) Le Train a Grande Vitesse (TGV) - Atlantique line
broad gauge: 251,153 km standard gauge: 710,754 km narrow gauge: 239,430 km |
Religions | Roman Catholic 90% | Christians 32.79% (of which Roman Catholics 17.33%, Protestants 5.62%, Orthodox 3.51%, Anglicans 1.31%), Muslims 19.6%, Hindus 13.31%, Buddhists 5.88%, Sikhs 0.38%, Jews 0.24%, other religions 12.83%, non-religious 12.53%, atheists 2.44% (2001 est.) |
Sex ratio | at birth:
1.03 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.81 male(s)/female total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2001 est.) |
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.78 male(s)/female total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2003 est.) |
Suffrage | 18 years of age; universal | - |
Telephone system | general assessment:
modern system in many respects domestic: nationwide microwave radio relay system; domestic satellite system with 41 earth stations; fiber-optic network linking 50 cities international: satellite earth stations - 6 Intelsat, 1 Inmarsat; 3 fully digitalized international switching centers; 8 submarine cables |
general assessment: NA
domestic: NA international: NA |
Telephones - main lines in use | 5,433,565 (December 1997) | NA |
Telephones - mobile cellular | 1,800,229 (December 1998) | NA |
Television broadcast stations | 60 (includes seven low-power stations) (1997) | NA |
Terrain | flat coastal lowlands, central highlands, high Andes Mountains, eastern lowland plains | the greatest ocean depth is the Mariana Trench at 10,924 m in the Pacific Ocean |
Total fertility rate | 2.66 children born/woman (2001 est.) | 2.65 children born/woman (2003 est.) |
Unemployment rate | 20% (2000 est.) | 30% combined unemployment and underemployment in many non-industrialized countries; developed countries typically 4%-12% unemployment |
Waterways | 18,140 km (navigable by river boats) (April 1996) | - |