conversion - $792 million, 2% of
GDP (FY90/91)

________________________________________________________________________

NICARAGUA

@Nicaragua:Geography

Location: Middle America, bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the
North Pacific Ocean, between Costa Rica and Honduras

Map references: Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
total area: 129,494 sq km
land area: 120,254 sq km
comparative area: slightly larger than New York State

Land boundaries: total 1,231 km, Costa Rica 309 km, Honduras 922 km

Coastline: 910 km

Maritime claims:
contiguous zone: 25-nm security zone
continental shelf: natural prolongation
territorial sea: 200 nm

International disputes: territorial disputes with Colombia over the
Archipelago de San Andres y Providencia and Quita Sueno Bank; with
respect to the maritime boundary question in the Golfo de Fonseca, the
International Court of Justice (ICJ) referred the disputants to an
earlier agreement in this century and advised that some tripartite
resolution among El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua likely would be
required

Climate: tropical in lowlands, cooler in highlands

Terrain: extensive Atlantic coastal plains rising to central interior
mountains; narrow Pacific coastal plain interrupted by volcanoes

Natural resources: gold, silver, copper, tungsten, lead, zinc, timber,
fish

Land use:
arable land: 9%
permanent crops: 1%
meadows and pastures: 43%
forest and woodland: 35%
other: 12%

Irrigated land: 850 sq km (1989 est.)

Environment:
current issues: deforestation; soil erosion; water pollution
natural hazards: destructive earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, and
occasionally severe hurricanes
international agreements: party to - Endangered Species, Nuclear Test
Ban, Ozone Layer Protection; signed, but not ratified - Biodiversity,
Climate Change, Environmental Modification, Law of the Sea

@Nicaragua:People

Population: 4,206,353 (July 1995 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 44% (female 921,356; male 930,594)
15-64 years: 53% (female 1,146,485; male 1,097,811)
65 years and over: 3% (female 62,607; male 47,500) (July 1995 est.)

Population growth rate: 2.61% (1995 est.)

Birth rate: 33.73 births/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Death rate: 6.45 deaths/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Net migration rate: -1.19 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 50.3 deaths/1,000 live births (19