Understanding a nation

About Zambia

Zambia is a land locked country in southern Africa. It is the largest copper producing country in Africa and is home to the Mosi-oa-Tunya / Victoria Falls, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. On 24th October 1964 Zambia became an independent country; prior to this date it had been known as Northern Rhodesia and ruled by the United Kingdom.

Geography

Spread over 752,614 km2, Zambia is the 39th largest country in the world. It is a land locked country bordered by the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west.

Zambia enjoys a pleasant sub-tropical climate with three main seasons, rainy season (November to April), cool dry season (May to August) and hot dry season (September to November). The average day time temperature is 20°C throughout most of the country.

Economy

Zambia has a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $29.16 billion with a GDP per capita of approximately $1,305. The main industries are copper mining, construction, foodstuffs, beverages, chemicals, textiles, fertilizer, and horticulture. Zambia exports approximately $11.7 billion of products with copper accounting for over 69% of this amount. Other major exported products are cobalt, electricity, salt, sulphur, stone, cement, iron, steel, mineral fuel, inorganic chemicals, tobacco and flowers.

Demographics

Zambia has a population of over 19.6 million. The population is made up of approximately 72 ethnic groups with the Tonga and Bemba ethnolinguistic groups being the largest. Of the working population approximately 59% work within the agriculture sector, 9% in industry and 33% in the service industry.

Some key facts:

• The average life expectancy in Zambia is 61 years

• Over 61% of the population live below the international poverty line (which is $2.15 a day to live on)

• Youth female and male literacy rates stand at around 93% and 94% respectively.

• Youth unemployment ie ages 15-24 is 30.1%

Zambia has been particularly affected by the HIV/ AIDS crisis with approximately 1.3 million people living with HIV. The HIV/ AIDS epidemic has led to a decline in the adult population with over 42.49% of the total population being aged 14 years or younger.

A key fact:

• The total number of orphans living in Zambia is over 1.2 million and of this number approximately 580,000 children have been orphaned as a direct result of HIV/ AIDS.

Such a drastic statistic is one of the key reasons why The Zambia Society Trust focuses its assistance on the orphaned and other vulnerable children of Zambia.