Haiti
|
| Basic Facts |
| Country name |
conventional long form: Republic of Haiti
conventional short form: Haiti local long form: Republique d'Haiti/Repiblik d' Ayiti local short form: Haiti/Ayiti |
| Gevernment type | elected government |
| Capital |
name: Port-au-Prince
geographic coordinates: 18 32 N, 72 20 W time difference: UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard Time) daylight saving time: +1hr, begins first Sunday in April; ends last Sunday in October |
| Flag description | two equal horizontal bands of blue (top) and red with a centered white rectangle bearing the coat of arms, which contains a palm tree flanked by flags and two cannons above a scroll bearing the motto L'UNION FAIT LA FORCE (Union Makes Strength) |
| Currency | gourde (HTG) |
| Internet country code | .ht |
| Ports and terminals | Cap-Haitien |
| Agriculture products | coffee, mangoes, sugarcane, rice, corn, sorghum; wood |
| Industries | sugar refining, flour milling, textiles, cement, light assembly industries based on imported parts |
| Geography |
| Location | Caribbean, western one-third of the island of Hispaniola, between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, west of the Dominican Republic |
| Coordinates | 19 00 N, 72 25 W |
| Continent | Central America and the Caribbean |
| Area |
total: 27,750 sq km
land: 27,560 sq km water: 190 sq km |
| Boundaries |
total: 360 km
border countries: Dominican Republic 360 km |
| Coastline | 1,771 km |
| Climate | tropical; semiarid where mountains in east cut off trade winds |
| Terrain | mostly rough and mountainous |
| Natural resources | bauxite, copper, calcium carbonate, gold, marble, hydropower |
| Natural hazards | lies in the middle of the hurricane belt and subject to severe storms from June to October; occasional flooding and earthquakes; periodic droughts |
| People |
| Population | 8,308,504
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 2006 est.) |
| Ethnic groups | black 95%, mulatto and white 5% |
| Religions | Roman Catholic 80%, Protestant 16% (Baptist 10%, Pentecostal 4%, Adventist 1%, other 1%), none 1%, other 3%
note: roughly half of the population practices Voodoo |
| Languages | French (official), Creole (official) |
