Coastline:
539 km

Maritime claims:
territorial sea: 12 nm
contiguous zone: 24 nm
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
continental shelf: 200 nm

Climate:
tropical; warm and comparatively dry along southeast coast; hot and
humid in southwest; hot and dry in north

Terrain:
mostly low plains with dissected plateau in south-central area

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
highest point: Mount Afadjato 880 m

Natural resources:
gold, timber, industrial diamonds, bauxite, manganese, fish,
rubber, hydropower, petroleum, silver, salt, limestone

Land use:
arable land: 16.26%
permanent crops: 9.67%
other: 74.07% (2001)

Irrigated land:
110 sq km (1998 est.)

Natural hazards:
dry, dusty, northeastern harmattan winds occur from January to
March; droughts

Environment - current issues:
recurrent drought in north severely affects agricultural
activities; deforestation; overgrazing; soil erosion; poaching and
habitat destruction threatens wildlife populations; water pollution;
inadequate supplies of potable water

Environment - international agreements:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94,
Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation

Geography - note:
Lake Volta is the world's largest artificial lake

People Ghana

Population:
21,029,853
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 and death rates, lower
population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
2005 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 37.1% (male 3,946,326/female 3,862,390)
15-64 years: 59.1% (male 6,203,035/female 6,235,107)
65 years and over: 3.7% (male 366,472/female 416,523) (2005 est.)

Median age:
total: 20.45 years
male: 20.2 years
female: 20.7 years (2005 est.)

Population growth rate:
1.25% (2005 est.)

Birth rate:
23.97 births/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Death rate:
10.84 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Net migration rate:
-0.59 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Sex ra