Country Facts - Democratic Republic of Congo

The People

Nationality

Congolese (singular and plural)

Ethnic Composition

Bantu	55%
Mangbetu-Azande (Hamitic)	45%

Note: There are over 200 African ethnic groups of which the majority are Bantu, comprised of three main tribes, the Mongo, Luba, and Kongo. The other portion of the population is made of the Hamitic Mangbetu-Azande.

Religious Composition

Roman Catholic	50%
Protestant	20%
Kimbanguist	10%
Muslim	10%
Indigenous beliefs	10%

Languages Spoken

French and Lingala are the official languages of government and business in Democratic Republic of Congo. Kingwana (a dialect of Kiswahili or Swahili), Kikongo, and Tshiluba are all spoken in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Education and Literacy

Democratic Republic of Congo's overall adult literacy is around 77.3 percent. Among males it is 86.6 percent and females 67.7 percent.

Labor Force

Total: 14.51 million (1993)
By occupation:

Agriculture	65%
Industry	16%
Services	19%

(1991)

Geography

Land Mass Total

905,567 sq mi (2,345,410 sq km)

Land

875,525 sq mi (2,267,600 sq km)

Water

30,042 sq mi (77,810 sq km)

Land Boundaries

Total: 10,744 mi (10,744 km)
Border countries: Angola 1,560 mi (2,511 km) (of which 139 mi (225 km) is the boundary of Angola's discontiguous Cabinda Province), Burundi 144 mi (233 km), Central African Republic 979 mi (1,577 km), Republic of the Congo 1,497 mi (2,410 km), Rwanda 134 mi (217 km), Sudan 390 mi (628 km), Tanzania 293 mi (473 km), Uganda 475 mi (765 km), Zambia 1,199 mi (1,930 km)

Coastline

23 mi (37 km)

Maritime claim

Exclusive economic zone: boundaries with neighbors
Territorial sea: 12 nm

Climate/Weather

Tropical; hot and humid in equatorial river basin; cooler and drier in southern highlands; cooler and wetter in eastern highlands; north of Equator - wet season April to October, dry season December to February; south of Equator - wet season November to March, dry season April to October.

Terrain

Vast central basin is a low-lying plateau; mountains in east.

Elevation extremes

Lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 ft (0 m)
Highest point: Pic Marguerite on Mont Ngaliema (Mount Stanley)
16,765 ft (5,110 m)

Natural Resources

Cobalt, copper, cadmium, petroleum, industrial and gem diamonds, gold, silver, zinc, manganese, tin, germanium, uranium, radium, bauxite, iron ore, coal, hydropower, timber

Land use

Arable land	3%
Permanent crops	2%
Other	96%

(1998)

Natural hazards

Periodic droughts in south; Congo River floods (seasonal); in the east, in the Great Rift Valley, there are active volcanoes.

Environment - current issues

Poaching threatens wildlife populations; water pollution; deforestation; refugees responsible for significant deforestation, soil erosion, and wildlife poaching; mining of minerals (coltan - a mineral used in creating capacitors, diamonds, and gold) causing environmental damage.

Geography Note

Straddles Equator; has very narrow strip of land that controls the lower Congo River and is only outlet to South Atlantic Ocean; dense tropical rain forest in central river basin and eastern highlands.

Demographics

Population

55,225,478 (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:	48.2%	Male: 13,369,493	Female: 13,256,174
15-64 years:	49.3%	Male: 13,343,303	Female: 13,860,996
65 years and over:	2.5%	Male: 581,568	Female: 813,944

(2002)

Growth Rate

2.79% (2002)

Life Expectancy

49.13 years (2002)
female: 51.13 years
male: 47.19 years

GDP Per Capita

Purchasing power parity
US$590 (2001)

Infant Mortality

98.05 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:	1.96 male(s)/female
65 years and over:	0.71 male(s)/female
Total population:	0.98 male(s)/female

(2002)

Net migration rate

-2.75 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2002)
Note: one million refugees fled into Zaire (now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo or DROC) in 1994 as a result of the ethnic fighting in Rwanda; fighting in the DROC between rebels and government forces in October 1996 caused 875,000 refugees to return to Rwanda in late 1996 and early 1997 and additional refugees have returned in subsequent years; fighting between the Congolese government and Uganda- and Rwanda-backed Congolese rebels spawned a regional war in DROC in August 1998, which left 1.8 million Congolese displaced in DROC and caused 300,000 Congolese refugees to flee to surrounding countries.

Economy & Trade

The economy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo - a nation endowed with vast potential wealth - has declined drastically since the mid-1980s. The war, which began in August 1998, has dramatically reduced national output and government revenue and has increased external debt. Foreign businesses have curtailed operations due to uncertainty about the outcome of the conflict, lack of infrastructure, and the difficult operating environment. The war has intensified the impact of such basic problems as an uncertain legal framework, corruption, raging inflation, and lack of openness in government economic policy and financial operations. A number of IMF and World Bank missions have met with the government to help it develop a coherent economic plan, and President Kaila Laurent Kabila had begun implementing reforms prior to his assassination. His son, Joseph, has made some improvements, if only through avoiding taking action. GDP growth had gone to --10.4 percent in 1999 and remained in negative figures until 2002, when it moved from the previous year's --4.4 percent to +3.5 percent. Inflation, as high as 544 percent in 2000, was ratcheted back down to a manageable 16 percent by 2002. GDP and inflation predictions for 2003-2005 promise improvement, but the DRC is in a permanent state of "wait and see" when it comes to economic matters. Political chaos has also made it difficult to collect accurate statistics.

Unemployment

Information currently unavailable. (2002)

Inflation Rate

358% (2001)

Industries

Mining (diamonds, copper, zinc), mineral processing, consumer products (including textiles, footwear, cigarettes, processed foods and beverages), cement

Exports

US$750 million (f.o.b., 2001)

Imports

US$1.024 billion (f.o.b., 2001)

Total Trade

Purchasing power parity
GDP US$32 billion (2001)

Top Export Partners

Benelux 62%, US 18%, South Africa, Finland, Italy (1999)

Top Import Partners

South Africa 28%, Benelux 14%, Nigeria 9%, Kenya 7%, China (1999)

Top Exports

Diamonds, copper, coffee, cobalt, crude oil

Top Imports

Consumer goods, foodstuffs, mining and other machinery, transport equipment, fuels

Debt - external

US$12.9 billion (2000)

Economic aid

Recipient: US$195.3 million (1995)

Fiscal Year:

Calendar year

Business Workweek

	Monday - Friday	Saturday - Sunday
Offices	7:30a.m. to 3p.m.	7:30a.m. to noon.
Retail	8a.m. to 6p.m.	Saturday 8a.m. to 6p.m.
Banks	8a.m. to 11:30a.m.	Closed
Government	7:30a.m. to 3p.m.	Saturday 7a.m. to noon.

Holidays

Official Holidays

Holidays	2003	2004	2005
New Year's Day	January 1	January 1	January 1
Martyr's of Independence Day	January 4	January 4	January 4
Labor Day	May 1	May1	May1
Party of the Popular Movement Day	May 20	May 20	May 20
Constitution Day	June 24	June 24	June 24
Independence Day	June 30	June 30	June 30
Parent's Day	August 1	August 1	August 1
Founder's Day	October 14	October 14	October 14
Youth Day	October 14	October 14	October 14
Naming Day or Three-Z Day	October 27	October 27	October 27
Army Day	November 17	November 17	November 17
Anniversary of the New Regime	November 24	November 24	November 24
Christmas Day	December 25	December 25	December 25

Country information used by permission of World Trade Press