party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
Geography - note:
landlocked, completely surrounded by South Africa; mountainous, more than 80% of the country is 1,800 m above sea level
People
Lesotho
Population:
2,128,180 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, higher death rates, lower population growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2008 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 35.3% (male 377,784/female 372,840) 15-64 years: 59.8% (male 621,687/female 649,981) 65 years and over: 5% (male 42,348/female 63,540) (2008 est.)
Median age:
total: 21.2 years male: 20.6 years female: 21.8 years (2008 est.)