line: 4,989 km

Maritime claims:
contiguous zone: 24 nm
continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
territorial sea: 12 nm

International disputes: short section of the boundary with Uruguay is
in dispute; short section of the boundary with Chile is indefinite;
claims British-administered Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas); claims
British-administered South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands;
territorial claim in Antarctica

Climate: mostly temperate; arid in southeast; subantarctic in
southwest

Terrain: rich plains of the Pampas in northern half, flat to rolling
plateau of Patagonia in south, rugged Andes along western border

Natural resources: fertile plains of the pampas, lead, zinc, tin,
copper, iron ore, manganese, petroleum, uranium

Land use:
arable land: 9%
permanent crops: 4%
meadows and pastures: 52%
forest and woodland: 22%
other: 13%

Irrigated land: 17,600 sq km (1989 est.)

Environment:
current issues: erosion results from inadequate flood controls and
improper land use practices; irrigated soil degradation;
desertification; air pollution in Buenos Aires and other major cites;
water pollution in urban areas; rivers becoming polluted due to
increased pesticide and fertilizer use
natural hazards: Tucuman and Mendoza areas in the Andes subject to
earthquakes; pamperos are violent windstorms that can strike the
Pampas and northeast; heavy flooding
international agreements: party to - Antarctic-Environmental Protocol,
Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Endangered Species,
Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Nuclear
Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling;
signed, but not ratified - Desertification, Law of the Sea, Marine
Life Conservation

Note: second-largest country in South America (after Brazil);
strategic location relative to sea lanes between South Atlantic and
South Pacific Oceans (Strait of Magellan, Beagle Channel, Drake
Passage)

@Argentina:People

Population: 34,292,742 (July 1995 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 28% (female 4,706,793; male 4,903,589)
15-64 years: 62% (female 10,680,074; male 10,689,728)
65 years and over: 10% (female 1,922,552; male 1,390,006) (July 1995
est.)

Population growth rate: 1.11% (1995 est.)

Birth rate: 19.51 births/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Death rate: 8.62 dea