ndaries:

total: 3,110 km
border countries: Burkina Faso 584 km, Ghana 668 km, Guinea 610 km,
Liberia 716 km, Mali 532 km

Coastline:

515 km

Maritime claims:

territorial sea: 12 nm
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
continental shelf: 200 nm

Climate:

tropical along coast, semiarid in far north; three seasons - warm
and dry (November to March), hot and dry (March to May), hot and wet
(June to October)

Terrain:

mostly flat to undulating plains; mountains in northwest

Elevation extremes:

lowest point: Gulf of Guinea 0 m
highest point: Mont Nimba 1,752 m

Natural resources:

petroleum, natural gas, diamonds, manganese, iron ore, cobalt,
bauxite, copper, gold, nickel, tantalum, silica sand, clay, cocoa
beans, coffee, palm oil, hydropower

Land use:

arable land: 10.23%
permanent crops: 11.16%
other: 78.61% (2005)

Irrigated land:

730 sq km (2003)

Total renewable water resources:

81 cu km (2001)

Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural):

total: 0.93 cu km/yr (24%/12%/65%)
per capita: 51 cu m/yr (2000)

Natural hazards:

coast has heavy surf and no natural harbors; during the rainy season
torrential flooding is possible

Environment - current issues:

deforestation (most of the country's forests - once the largest in
West Africa - have been heavily logged); water pollution from sewage
and industrial and agricultural effluents

Environment - international agreements:

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, Whaling
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:

most of the inhabitants live along the sandy coastal region; apart
from the capital area, the forested interior is sparsely populated

People
Cote d'Ivoire

Population:

20,179,602
note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
life expectancy, higher infant mortality, higher death rates, lower
population growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
2008 est.)

Age structure:

0-14 years: 40.9% (male 4,161,238/female 4,092,593)
15-64 years: 56.3% (male 5,790,503/fema