LOCATION:

Western South America, bordering the Pacific Ocean at the Equator, between Colombia and Peru

AREA:

total: 283,560 sq km
land: 276,840 sq km
water: 6,720 sq km
note: includes Galapagos Islands
Area - comparative:
  
slightly smaller than Nevada

POPULATION

13,363,593

(July 2005 est.)

AGE STRUCTURE:

0-14 years:
33.5%(male 2,282,252/female 2,195,942)
 
15-64 years: 61.5% (male 4,094,146/female 4,130,096)
 
65 years and over: 4.9% (male 310,336/female 350,821)

(2005 est.)

MEDIAN AGE:

total: 23.27 years
male: 22.82 years
female: 23.74 years

(2005 est.)

POPULATION GROWTH:

1.24%

(2005 est.)

INFANT MORTALITY RATE:

total: 23.66
deaths/1,000 live births
 
male: 28.36
deaths/1,000 live births
 
female: 18.72
deaths/1,000 live births

 (2005 est.)

HIV/AIDS-ADULT PREVALENCE RATE:

0.3 %

HIV/AIDS- PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV/AIDS :

Ages 15-49
20,000

low estimate:
10,000

high estimate
34,000

HIV/AIDS-DEATH

2,200

low estimate:
2,200

high estimate:
4,100

ETHNIC GROUPS:

mestizo (mixed Amerindian and white) 65%,
Amerindian 25%,
Spanish and others 7%,
black 3%

RELIGIONS

Roman Catholic 95%,
other 5%

LANGUAGES:

Spanish (official), Amerindian languages (especially Quechua)

LITERACY:

definition: age 15 and over can read and write
 
total population: 92.5%
male: 94%
female: 91%

(2003 est.)

GOVERNMENT TYPE:

republic

CAPITAL:

Quito

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS:

22 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia); Azuay, Bolivar, Canar, Carchi, Chimborazo, Cotopaxi, El Oro, Esmeraldas, Galapagos, Guayas, Imbabura, Loja, Los Rios, Manabi, Morona-Santiago, Napo, Orellana, Pastaza, Pichincha, Sucumbios, Tungurahua, Zamora-Chinchipe

INDEPENDENCE:

24 May 1822 (from Spain)

ECONOMY:

Ecuador has substantial petroleum resources, which have accounted for % of the country's export earnings and one-fourth of central government  revenues in recent years. Consequently, fluctuations in world market prices can have a substantial domestic impact. In the late 1990s, Ecuador suffered its worst economic crisis, with natural disasters and sharp declines in world petroleum prices driving Ecuador's economy into free fall in 1999. Real GDP contracted by more than 6%, with poverty worsening significantly. The banking system also collapsed, and Ecuador defaulted on its external debt later that year. The currency depreciated by some 70% in 1999, and, on the brink of hyperinflation, the MAHAUD government announced it would dollarize the economy. A coup, however, ousted MAHAUD from office in January 2000, and after a short-lived junta failed to garner military support, Vice President Gustavo NOBOA took over the presidency. In March 2000, Congress approved a series of structural reforms that also provided the framework for the adoption of the US dollar as
 legal tender.  Dollarization stabilized the economy, and growth returned
 to its pre-crisis levels in the years that followed. 

GDP:

purchasing power parity - $49.51 billion

(2004 est.)

POPULATION BELOW POVERT LINE:

45%

(2001 est.)

INFLATION RATE:

2%

(2004 est.)

UNEMPLOYMENT:

11.1%; note - underemployment of 47%

(2004 est.)

EXCHANGE RATES:

Ecuador formally adopted the US dollar as legal tender in March 2000

Illicit Drugs:

significant transit country for cocaine originating in Colombia and Peru; importer of precursor chemicals used in production of illicit narcotics; attractive location for cash-placement by drug traffickers laundering money because of dollarization and weak anti-money-laundering regime, especially vulnerable along the border with Colombia; increased activity on the northern frontier by trafficking groups and Colombian insurgents