Natural resources: copper, cobalt, limestone, salt

Land use: 23% arable land; 9% permanent crops; 25% meadows and pastures; 30% forest and woodland; 13% other; includes NEGL% irrigated

Environment: straddles Equator; deforestation; overgrazing; soil erosion

Note: landlocked

- People
Population: 17,960,262 (July 1990), growth rate 3.5% (1990)

Birth rate: 52 births/1,000 population (1990)

Death rate: 17 deaths/1,000 population (1990)

Net migration rate: 0 migrants/1,000 population (1990)

Infant mortality rate: 107 deaths/1,000 live births (1990)

Life expectancy at birth: 48 years male, 50 years female (1990)