s, and
redirects water to South Africa

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

Geography - note:
landlocked, completely surrounded by South Africa; mountainous,
more than 80% of the country is 1,800 meters above sea level

People Lesotho

Population:
2,022,331
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
2006 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 36.8% (male 374,102/female 369,527)
15-64 years: 58.3% (male 572,957/female 606,846)
65 years and over: 4.9% (male 39,461/female 59,438) (2006 est.)

Median age:
total: 20.3 years
male: 19.7 years
female: 21 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
-0.46% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
24.75 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
28.71 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
-0.68 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.66 male(s)/female
total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
total: 87.24 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 92.04 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 82.28 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 34.4 years
male: 35.55 years
female: 33.21 years (2006 est.)

Total fertility rate:
3.28 children born/woman (2006 est.)

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
28.9% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
320,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
29,000 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
noun: Mosotho (singular), Basotho (plural)
adjective: Basotho

Ethnic groups:
Sotho 99.7%, Europeans, Asians, and other 0.3%,

Religions:
Christian 80%, indigenous beliefs 20%

Languages:
Sesotho (southern Sotho), English (official), Zulu, Xhosa

Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 84.8%
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