Environment - international agreements: party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection signed, but not ratified: Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping
Geography - note:
landlocked, completely surrounded by South Africa; mountainous,
more than 80% of the country is 1,800 meters above sea level
People Lesotho
Population:
1,861,959
note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
2003 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 37.7% (male 353,554; female 349,092)
15-64 years: 56.8% (male 516,017; female 541,694)
65 years and over: 5.5% (male 41,735; female 59,867) (2003 est.)
Median age:
total: 19.8 years
male: 19.3 years
female: 20.4 years (2002)
Population growth rate:
0.19% (2003 est.)
Birth rate:
27.26 births/1,000 population (2003 est.)
Death rate:
24.58 deaths/1,000 population (2003 est.)
Net migration rate:
-0.74 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2003 est.)