Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by a governor-general Prime minister: Danny Philip
Population
42,192,494
584,578
Life Expectancy
77.140 years
74.420 years
Capital City
Buenos Aires
Largest city
Buenos Aires (population: 13,076,300)
Honiara (population: 56,298)
Human Development Index
0.86
0.591
GDP per capita
$17,700 US
Literacy Rate
97.2%
%
Corruption Perception Index
2.9
2.9
Percentage of Women in Parliament
39.8%
0%
Wealthiest Citizens
Gregorio Perez Companc & family ($1.8bn US)
NA
Unemployment Rate
7.200%
Death Penalty
Abolished
Abolished
Political System
republic
parliamentary democracy
Independence date
9 July 1816 (from Spain)
Religions
nominally Roman Catholic 92% (less than 20% practicing), Protestant 2%, Jewish 2%, other 4%
Church of Melanesia 32.8%, Roman Catholic 19%, South Seas Evangelical 17%, Seventh-Day Adventist 11.2%, United Church 10.3%, Christian Fellowship Church 2.4%, other Christian 4.4%, other 2.4%, unspecified 0.3%, none 0.2% (1999 census)
Languages
Spanish (official), Italian, English, German, French
Melanesian pidgin in much of the country is lingua franca; English (official; but spoken by only 1%-2% of the population); 120 indigenous languages
Exports
soybeans and derivatives, petroleum and gas, vehicles, corn, wheat
External Debt
$136,800,000,000 $
Exchange Rate
Argentine pesos (ARS) per US dollar - 3.1636 (2008 est.), 3.1105 (2007), 3.0543 (2006), 2.9037 (2005), 2.9233 (2004)
Military Budget as percentage of GDP
0.800%
Beijing Olympics Medal Count
6
0
Location
Southern South America, bordering the South Atlantic Ocean, between Chile and Uruguay
Oceania, group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, east of Papua New Guinea
Area
2,780,400 km sq
28,896 km sq
Coastline
4,989 km
5,313 km
Climate
mostly temperate; arid in southeast; subantarctic in southwest
tropical monsoon; few extremes of temperature and weather
