Colombia is located in the northwestern part of South
America. It shares borders with Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, and Venezuela. It is the only South American country that has a coastline with both the North Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. In size, Colombia is slightly less than twice the size of Texas. It has a republic form of government with both the president and vice president being elected to four year terms. The capital is Bogota. The currency is the Colombian peso.
The 2007 estimate of the population is 44,379,598 with a population growth rate of 1.43 percent. The Colombian life expectancy is 72.27 years with women outliving men by eight years.
Spanish is the official language of Colombia. The country has a 92.5 percent literacy rate of people over the age of 15. Colombia is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic with over 90 percent of the populace following the religion.
Colombia has a very unfavorable reputation in the world because of its drug production and distribution. It is the world's leading producer of cocaine; 2005 showed a 26 percent increase over 2004 in acreage devoted to coca cultivation.
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