General information about Colombia
The official name is the Republic of Colombia (Republica de Colombia).
Located in the northwestern part of South America. The area is 1.14 million km2, the population is 42.7 million people. (2002). The official language is Spanish. The capital is Bogota (6.7 million people, 2002). Public holiday – Independence Day July 20 (1810). The monetary unit is the Colombian peso.
Member of the UN (since 1945), OAS (since 1948), Leningrad NPP (since 1975), LAI (since 1981), Association of Caribbean States (since 1995), Non-Aligned Movement, etc.
Geography of Colombia
According to Allcitycodes, Colombia is located between 66°51′ and 79°02′ west longitude and 12°27′ north and 4°14′ south latitude. It is washed from the west by the Pacific Ocean (warm Equatorial countercurrent), from the north by the Caribbean Sea. The shores are generally slightly indented. The largest bay of the Caribbean coast is Uraba, the Pacific coast is Buenaventura. In the Caribbean, there are the San Andres and Providencia archipelagos belonging to Colombia (disputed by Nicaragua), the San Bernardo and Rosario archipelagos, and the island of Fuerte. In the Pacific Ocean – the islands of Malpelo, Gorgon and Gorgonilla.
It borders Venezuela to the east and northeast, Brazil to the southeast and south, Peru to the south and southwest, Ecuador to the southwest, and Panama to the northwest.
The western part of the territory in the meridional direction is crossed by three ridges of the Andes. The Western Cordillera is separated from the Central by the valley of the Cauca River, the Central from the East by the valley of the Magdalena River. The highest points – the mountains of Cristobal Colon and Simon Bolivar (both – 5775 m each) – are located in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range located off the Caribbean coast, which is a continuation of the Central Cordillera. The eastern part of the country is occupied by the western edge of the Guiana Plateau, the southern and southeastern – by the Amazonian lowland. In mountainous areas, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are frequent, such as Huila (5750 m), Ruiz (5400 m) and Cumbal (4764 m).
Minerals: oil (proven reserves – about 200 million tons), natural gas (120 billion m3), coal (2.7 billion tons), nickel ores (900 thousand tons), gold, platinum, emeralds.
The soils are red-yellow ferralitic, brown-red lateralized, alluvial. Mountainous regions are characterized by intense soil erosion.
The position of Colombia in the equatorial and subequatorial climatic zones predetermines a large amount of precipitation in a significant part of the territory (up to 4000 mm per year in the Amazon and 10,000 mm per year on the Pacific coast). Altitude has a strong influence on climate. In coastal areas and the valley of the Magdalena River, the average annual temperatures are + 25-29 ° C; at an altitude of 500 to 2300 m above sea level, the climate is subtropical (+17–25°C), and from 2300 to 3000 m it is temperate (+13–16°). Above 3000 m above sea level there is a cold climatic zone, where the temperature can drop to negative levels.
Rivers (km): Magdalena (1550) with a tributary of Cauca (1350), tributaries of the Orinoco – Arauca (950), Guaviare (1350) and Meta (1000), tributaries of the Amazon – Caqueta (1200), Vaupes (1000) and Putumayo (1350) ). The hydropower potential of the rivers is 93.1 million kW.
Vegetation: evergreen forests (hylaea), savannahs (llanos), incl. swampy, in semi-desert areas – xerophilous shrubs and cacti, in the mountains – deciduous-evergreen forests, mountain hylaea, equatorial alpine meadows (paramos). There are more than 130 thousand plant species in total, of which more than half are endemic. In areas with a high population density, the vegetation has been greatly altered by economic activity. The animal world is extremely diverse: monkeys, edentulous (anteaters, sloths, armadillos), predators (jaguar, puma, ocelot), reptiles (crocodiles, lizards, snakes), tapirs, bakers, opossums, bats, etc. The country ranks 1st place in the world in terms of bird diversity (1700 species, including parrots, toucans, hummingbirds).
Population of Colombia
In 1982, 29.7 million people lived in the country, in 1992 – 36.4 million.
Birth rate – 22.0%, mortality – 5.7%, infant mortality – 23.2 people. per 1000 newborns, average life expectancy is 70.1 years, incl. women 74.8, men 67 years.
Men 20.7 million people, women 22.0 million people. Age structure: 0-14 years old – 31.6% of the population, 15-64 years old – 63.6%, 65 years and older – 4.8%. Urban population – 75%. The balance of migration is -0.32%. 8.8% of the adult population is illiterate.
58% of the population are mestizos, 20% are whites, 14% are mulattos, 4% are blacks, 3% are sambo, 1% are Indians (chibcha-muisca, Arawaks, Caribs, etc.). The language is Spanish, in the spoken language there are borrowings from Indian languages, which are spoken by a significant part of the indigenous population. Blacks living in the San Andres and Providencia archipelago speak English.
Religion – Catholicism (more than 90% of the population).
