th Namibia is indefinite;
quadripoint with Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe is in disagreement

Climate: semiarid; warm winters and hot summers

Terrain: predominately flat to gently rolling tableland; Kalahari Desert
in southwest

Natural resources: diamonds, copper, nickel, salt, soda ash, potash,
coal, iron ore, silver, natural gas

Land use: 2% arable land; 0% permanent crops; 75% meadows and pastures;
2% forest and woodland; 21% other; includes NEGL% irrigated

Environment: rains in early 1988 broke six years of drought that had
severely affected the important cattle industry; overgrazing; desertification

Note: landlocked; very long boundary with South Africa

- People
Population: 1,224,527 (July 1990), growth rate 2.8% (1990)

Birth rate: 37 births/1,000 population (1990)

Death rate: 9 deaths/1,000 population (1990)

Net migration rate: 0 migrants/1,000 population (1990)

Infant mortality rate: 43 deaths/1,000 live births (1990)

Life expectancy at birth: 58 years male, 64 years female (1990)

Total fertility rate: 4.8 children born/woman (1990)

Nationality: noun and adjective--Motswana (singular), Batswana (plural)

Ethnic divisions: 95% Batswana; about 4% Kalanga, Basarwa, and Kgalagadi;
about 1% white

Religion: 50% indigenous beliefs, 50% Christian

Language: English (official), Setswana

Literacy: 60%

Labor force: 400,000; 163,000 formal sector employees, most others
are engaged in cattle raising and subsistence agriculture (1988 est.);
19,000 are employed in various mines in South Africa (1988)

Organized labor: 19 trade unions

- Government
Long-form name: Republic of Botswana

Type: parliamentary republic

Capital: Gaborone

Administrative divisions: 10 districts; Central, Chobe, Ghanzi,
Kgalagadi, Kgatleng, Kweneng, Ngamiland, North-East, South-East, Southern;
note--in addition, there may now be 4 town councils named Francistown,
Gaborone, Lobaste, Selebi-Pikwe

Independence: 30 September 1966 (from UK; formerly Bechuanaland)

Constitution: March 1965, effective 30 September 1966

Legal system: based on Roman-Dutch law and local customary law;
judicial review limited to matters of interpretation; has not accepted
compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

National holiday: Botswana Day, 30 September (1966)

Executive branch: president, vice president, Cabinet

Legislative branch: bicameral Parliament consists of an upper house or
House of Chiefs and a lower house or National Asse