Country Facts - Cote d'Ivoire

The People

Ethnic Composition

Akan	42.1%
Voltaiques or Gur	17.6%
Northern Mandes	16.5%
Krous	11%
Southern Mandes	10%
Other	2.8%

Religious Composition

Muslim	35-40%
Animist and indigenous	25-40%
Christian	20-30%

Note: the majority of foreigners (migratory workers) are Muslim (70%) and Christian (20%)

Languages Spoken

French (official), Baoule, Dioula, and 58 other native dialects.

Education and Literacy

Primary education is six years long but not compulsory. Only about 48.5 percent of the population over age 15 is literate; 57 percent of males, and 40 percent of females.

Labor Force

Total: 68% agricultural (2000)

Geography

Land Mass Total

124,502 sq mi (322,460 sq km)

Land

122,780 sq mi (318,000 sq km)

Water

1,722 sq mi (4,460 sq km)

Land Boundaries

Total: 1,932 mi (3,110 km)

Border countries: Burkina Faso 362 mi (584 km), Ghana 415 mi (668 km), Guinea 379 mi (610 km), Liberia 444 mi (716 km), Mali 330 mi (532 km).

Coastline

320 mi (515 km)

Maritime claim

Continental shelf: 200 nm
Exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
Territorial sea: 12 nm

Climate/Weather

Tropical along coast, semiarid in far north; three seasons --warm and dry (November to March), hot and dry (March to May), hot and wet (June to October).

Terrain

Flat to undulating plains; mountains in northwest.

Elevation extremes

Lowest: Gulf of Guinea 0 ft (0 m)
Highest: Mount Nimba 5,748 ft (1,752 m)

Natural Resources

Petroleum, diamonds, manganese, iron ore, cobalt, bauxite, copper, hydropower.

Land use

Arable land	9%
Permanent crops	14%
Other	77%

(1998)

Natural hazards

Coast has heavy surf and no natural harbors; during the rainy season torrential flooding is possible.

Environment - current issues

Deforestation (most of the country's forests --once the largest in West Africa --have been cleared by the timber industry); water pollution from sewage and industrial and agricultural effluents.

Geography Note

Most of the inhabitants live along the sandy coastal region; apart from the capital area, the forested interior is sparsely populated.

Demographics

Population

16,804,784 (July 2002)
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.

Age structure

0-14 years:	46%	Male: 3,874,651	Female: 3,847,080
15-64 years:	51.8%	Male: 4,468,242	Female: 4,238,998
65 years and over:	2.2%	Male: 185,306	Female: 190,507

Growth Rate

2.45% (2002)

Life Expectancy

44.72 years (2002)
female: 46.03 years
male: 43.45 years

GDP Per Capita

Purchasing power parity
US$1,550 (2001)

Infant Mortality

92.23 deaths/1,000 live births (2002)

Sex ratio

At birth:	1.03 male(s)/female
Under 15 years:	1.01 male(s)/female
15-64 years:	1.05 male(s)/female
65 years and over:	0.97 male(s)/female
Total population:	1.03 male(s)/female

Net migration rate

1.22 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2002)
Note: after Liberia's civil war started in 1990, more than 350,000 refugees fled to Cote d'Ivoire; by the end of 1999 most Liberian refugees were assumed to have returned.

Economy & Trade

Cote d'Ivoire is among the world's largest producers and exporters of coffee, cocoa beans, and palm oil. Consequently, the economy is highly sensitive to fluctuations in international prices for these products and to weather conditions. Despite government attempts to diversify the economy, it is still largely dependent on agriculture and related activities, which engage roughly 68 percent of the population. After several years of lagging performance, the Ivorian economy began a comeback in 1994, due to the 50 percent devaluation of the CFA franc and improved prices for cocoa and coffee, growth in nontraditional primary exports such as pineapples and rubber, limited trade and banking liberalization, offshore oil and gas discoveries, and generous external financing and debt rescheduling by multilateral lenders and France. Moreover, government adherence to donor-mandated reforms led to a jump in growth to 5 percent annually during 1996-99. Growth was negative in 2000 and 2001 because of the difficulty of meeting the conditions of international donors, continued low prices of key exports, and post-coup instability.
The political upheaval that began in late 2002 and swept into 2003 will continue to send the economy into a downward spiral. The departure of a significant number of French citizens in January 2003 represented not just a demographic movement but also a hemorrhaging of capital. Foreign investors who were considering Côte d'Ivoire have now focused their attentions elsewhere.

Unemployment

13% in urban areas (1998)

Inflation Rate

2.5% (2000)

Industries

Foodstuffs, beverages, wood products, oil refining, automobile assembly, textiles, fertilizer, construction materials, electricity.

Exports

$3.6 billion (f.o.b., 2001)

Imports

$2.4 billion (f.o.b., 2001)

Total Trade

Purchasing power parity
GDP US$25.5 billion (2001)

Top Export Partners

France 13%, US 8%, Netherlands 7%, Germany 7%, Italy 6% (1999)

Top Import Partners

France 26%, Nigeria 10%, China 7%, Italy 5%, Germany 4% (1999)

Top Exports

Cocoa 33%, coffee, timber, petroleum, cotton, bananas, pineapples, palm oil, cotton, fish (1999)

Top Imports

Food, consumer goods; capital goods, fuel, transport equipment, raw materials

Debt - external

US$13.3 billion (2000)

Economic aid

ODA, $1 billion (1996)

Fiscal Year:

Calendar year.

Business Workweek

	Monday - Friday	Saturday - Sunday
Offices	9a.m. to 1p.m. and 2p.m. to 5:30p.m.	Closed
Retail	8a.m. to noon and 2:30p.m. to 6:30p.m.	Saturday 8a.m. to noon and 2:30p.m. to 5:30p.m.
Banks	8a.m. to 11:30a.m. and 2:30p.m. to 4:30p.m.	Closed
Government	8a.m. to noon and 2:30p.m. to 6p.m.	Closed

Note: Midday break periods tend to be longer in hotter weather. Rural areas may have erratic schedules based on weather, seasons, and local custom....

Holidays

Official Holidays

Holidays	2003	2004	2005
New Year's Day	January 1	January 1	January 1
Festival of Sacrifice (Tabaski, Eid Al Adha)¹	February 12	February 2	January 21
Easter²	April 20	April 11	March 27
Easter Monday	April 21	April 12	March 28
Labor Day	May 1	May 1	May 1
Ascension³	May 29	May 20	May 6
Whit Sunday	June 8	May 30	May 15
Whit Sunday/Monday (Pentecost)*¹	June 9	May 31	May 16
Birthday of Prophet Mohammad (Mawlid an Nabi)*²	May 14	May 2	April 21
Republic Day	August 7	August 7	August 7
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary	August 15	August 15	August 15
All Saints' Day	November 1	November 1	November 1
Start of Ramadan*³	October 27	October 15	October 4
End of Ramadan (Eid Al Fitr)**¹	November 26	November 14	November 3
Felix Houphouet-Boigny Remembrance Day	December 7	December 7	December 7
Christmas Day**²	December 25	December 25	December 25

¹	Culmination of the Haj or Holy Pilgrimage.
²	Easter, a Christian holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is the first Sunday after the full moon and the vernal equinox (fixed in the Gregorian calendar at March 21), and often observed with Good Friday and Easter Monday. In the West, Easter is predicted using the Gregorian calendar, while Eastern Orthodox Christians use the much older Julian calendar, and celebrate 13 days later.
³	The feast of Ascension takes place 40 days after Easter in both the Christian and Orthodox faiths and celebrates the ascent of Christ into Heaven.
*¹	The Christian feast of Pentecost, Whit Sunday or Whit Monday takes place 50 days after Easter, in observation of the day God came to the disciples through the Holy Ghost.
*²	The Birthday of the Prophet Mohammad is celebrated on the twelfth day in the month of Rabi'l of the Islamic calendar.
*³	Ramadan (the month of fasting) begins with the first appearance of the new moon in the ninth month of the lunar Islamic Hijra calendar, and lasts 30 days. Dates for the start of Ramadan will vary from country to country, depending on the first appearance of the moon.
**¹	Feasting that officially marks the end of Ramadan, and commonly lasts for three days.
**²	Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. In A.D.320, Pope Julius I fixed the date at December 25 based on the Gregorian calendar. The Orthodox church calculates Christmas using the Julian calendar and celebrates 13 days later on January 7.

Country information used by permission of World Trade Press