Languages: Portuguese (official), Crioulo, African languages
Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 34% male: 50% female: 18% (2000 est.)
Government Guinea-Bissau
Country name: conventional long form: Republic of Guinea-Bissau
conventional short
Guine-Bissau local long form:
Government type: republic, multiparty since mid-1991
Capital: Bissau
Administrative divisions: 9 regions (regioes, singular - regiao); Bafata, Biombo, Bissau, Bolama, Cacheu, Gabu, Oio, Quinara, Tombali; note - Bolama may have been renamed Bolama/Bijagos
Independence: 24 September 1973 (unilaterally declared by Guinea-Bissau); 10 September 1974 (recognized by Portugal)
National holiday: Independence Day, 24 September (1973)
Constitution: 16 May 1984, amended 4 May 1991, 4 December 1991, 26
February 1993, 9 June 1993, and 1996
Legal system: NA