LOCATION:

Southern South America,  bordering the South Atlantic Ocean, between Chile and Uruguay.

AREA:

Total: 2,766,890 sq km , Lland: 2,736,690 sq km, Water: 30,200 sq km, Slightly less than three-tenths the size of the US

POPULATION:

39,144,753 (July 2004 est.)

AGE STRUCTURE:

0-14 years: 25.9% (male 5,179,236; female 4,947,234)
15-64 years:63.6% (male,12,452,566; female 12,457,451)
65 years and over:10.5 % (male 1,685,371; female 2,422,895)
(2004 est)

MEDIAN AGE:

total: 29.2 years
male: 28.3 years female: 30.1 years
(2004 est.)

POPULATION GROWTH:

1.02 % (2004 est.)
Birth rate: 17.19 births/1,000 population
(2004 est.)
death rate:
7.57 deaths/1,000 population
(2004 est.)
net migration rate:
0.61 migrants/1,000 population
(2004 est.)

INFANT MORTALITY RATE:

total: 15.66 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 17.6 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 13.63 deaths/1,000 live births
(2004 est.)

HIV/AIDS-ADULT PREVALENCE RATE:

HIV/AIDS Prevalence Rate: 0.7 % 

HIV/AIDS- PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV/AIDS :

Ages 15-49 120,000
low estimate: 61,000
high estimate: 200.000

HIV/AIDS-DEATH

Adults and Children: 1500 deaths
low estimate: 1400
high estimate: 3000

ETHNIC GROUPS:

white (mostly Spanish and italian)
97% mestizo, Amerindian,
or other nonwhite groups 3%

RELIGIONS:

nominally Roman Catholic 92%
(less than 20 % practicing)
Protestant 2%
Jewish 2%
Other 4$

LANGUAGES:

Spanish (official)
English, Italian,
German, French

LITERACY:

definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 97.1%
male: 97.1%
female: 97.1%
2003 est.

GOVERNMENT TYPE:

Republic

CAPITAL:

Buenos Aires

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS:

23 provincnes (provincias, singular-provincia), and 1 autonomous city* (distrito federal); Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires Capital Federal*, Catamarca, Chaco, Chubut, Cordoba, Corrientes, Entre Rios, formosa, Jujuy, La Pampa, La Rioja, Mendoza, Misiones, Neuquen, Rio Negro, Salta, San Juan, San Luis, Santa Cruz, Santa Fe, Santiago del Estero, Tierra del Fuego-Antartida e Islas del Atlantico Sur, Tucuman
Note: the US does not recognize any claims to Antarctica

INDEPENDENCE:

9 July 1816 (from Spain) 

ECONOMY:

  Argentina benefits from rich natural resources, a highly literate population, an export-oriented agricultural sector, and a diversified industrial base. Over the past decade, however, the country has suffered problems of inflation, external debt, capital flight, and budget deficits. Growth in 2000 was a negative 0.8%, as both domestic and foreign investors remained skeptical of the government's ability to pay debts and maintain the peso's fixed exchange rate with the US dollar. The economic situation worsened in 2001 with the widening of spreads on Argentine bonds, massive withdrawals from the banks, and a further decline in consumer and investor confidence. Government efforts to achieve a "zero deficit," to stabilize the banking system, and to restore economic growth proved inadequate in the face of the mounting economic problems. The peso's peg to the dollar was abandoned in January 2002, and the peso was floated in February; the exchange rate plunged and real GDP
 fell by 10.9% in 2002, but by mid-year the economy had stabilized, albeit at a lower level. GDP expanded by more than 8% in 2003
and again in 2004, with unemployment falling and inflation
remaining in single digits.

GDP:

purchasing power parity-$435.5 billion
 (2003 est.

POPULATION BELOW POVERT LINE:

51.7% (May 2003)

INFLATION RATE:

13.4% (2003)

UNEMPLOYMENT:

17.3% (2003)

EXCHANGE RATES:

Argentine pesos per US dollar-
2.9003 (2003)
3.0633 (2002)
0.9995 (2001)
0.9995 (2000)
0.9995 (1999)

ILLICIT DRUGS:

used as a trans-shipment country for cocaine headed for Europe and the US;
some money-laundering activity, especially in the Tri-Border Area; domestic
consumption of drugs in urban centers is increasing.