and 1980s
was followed by multiparty elections in the early 1990s. Several hundred
thousand farm workers migrate south every year to Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana.

Geography Burkina Faso

Location: Western Africa, north of Ghana

Geographic coordinates: 13 00 N, 2 00 W

Map references: Africa

Area: total: 274,200 sq km water: 400 sq km land: 273,800 sq km

Area - comparative: slightly larger than Colorado

Land boundaries: total: 3,193 km border countries: Benin 306 km, Cote
d'Ivoire 584 km, Ghana 549 km, Mali 1,000 km, Niger 628 km, Togo 126 km

Coastline: 0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims: none (landlocked)

Climate: tropical; warm, dry winters; hot, wet summers

Terrain: mostly flat to dissected, undulating plains; hills in west
and southeast

Elevation extremes: lowest point: Mouhoun (Black Volta) River 200 m
highest point: Tena Kourou 749 m

Natural resources: manganese, limestone, marble; small deposits of gold,
antimony, copper, nickel, bauxite, lead, phosphates, zinc, silver

Land use: arable land: 13% permanent crops: 0% other: 87% (1998 est.)

Irrigated land: 250 sq km (1998 est.)

Natural hazards: recurring droughts

Environment - current issues: recent droughts and desertification
severely affecting agricultural activities, population distribution,
and the economy; overgrazing; soil degradation; deforestation

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

Geography - note: landlocked savanna cut by the three principal rivers
of the Black, Red, and White Voltas

People Burkina Faso

Population: 12,603,185 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 2002 est.)

Age structure: 0-14 years: 47.3% (male 3,007,675; female 2,960,697)
15-64 years: 49.8% (male 3,000,411; female 3,271,594) 65 years and over:
2.9% (male 151,976; female 210,832) (2002 est.)

Population growth rate: 2.64% (2002 est.)

Birth rate: 44.34 births/1,000 population (2002 est.)

Death rate: 17.07 deaths/1,000 popul