Botswana 2001
Yearbook 2001
Botswana. In January, a controversial death sentence was set by an appeals jury with judges from the Commonwealth. A white South African woman had been convicted of refusing to murder her girlfriend for the purpose of marrying her husband. The convicted man was executed in March by hanging. The case was intensely debated, and the head of the country’s television resigned in protest that the government had banned him from sending a documentary about the trial and execution.
- Abbreviationfinder: lists typical abbreviations and country overview of Botswana, including bordering countries, geography, history, politics, and economics.
In November, President Mogae criticized Zimbabwe’s leaders for the methods used to transfer land from white landowners to black citizens.
The effects of the HIV epidemic continued to plague Botswana, which has the highest proportion of HIV infected in the world. A total of about 300,000 of the country’s 1.5 million. residents were estimated to carry HIV. In ten years, the average life expectancy in Botswana has dropped from about 65 years to 39 years, according to official US estimates.
The country’s largest diamond company, Debswana, with 6,000 employees, decided during the year to continue to account for 90% of the cost of brake medication for HIV-infected workers and their partners. The diamond industry accounts for 80% of Botswana’s export revenue and half of the state’s revenue.
Population 2001
According to Countryaah, the population of Botswana in 2001 was 1,798,967, ranking number 147 in the world. The population growth rate was 1.830% yearly, and the population density was 3.1745 people per km2.
Physical characteristics and population
The country is formed by a large tectonic depression, flat or slightly undulating, with an average height of around 1000 m. The northern part, where the hydrography in practice consists only of the Okavango river, which is lost in a vast internal delta (Marshes of the Okavango), is the least dry region: about 500 mm of rain per year, concentrated in the season summer (southern) thanks to the monsoon air currents coming from the Indian Ocean. The southern section receives on average rainfall of less than 250 mm per year and is occupied by the predominantly sandy Kalahari desert. AE, the border with South Africa is marked by the Limpopo, the course of which is accompanied by stretches of tunnel forest. For the rest, the vegetation is steppe; the central-northern belt is covered by the wooded savannah or by the tropical forest.
The population is very compact, largely prevailing the Cwana, a Bantu group that has absorbed the Bushman element, now relegated to the poorest western regions and in danger of extinction. The average density is 3.5 inhabitants / km 2, with areas of relative concentration only to the E, along the road and railway line that leads from South Africa to Zimbabwe. After a long phase of intense demographic dynamics, which in the second half of the 20th century. had tripled the number of inhabitants, the population of Botswana was tragically affected by the spread of AIDS, which has raised the death rate, which is also partially offset by the high birth rate (attested at 23%). AIDS has affected the life expectancy of the population: the current figure is 53 years, an increase compared to the recent past (49 years for 2002 and 2003) but far from 64 at the beginning of the 90s. The trend towards urbanization is recent (61.7% urban population), although there are still no centers with real city characteristics. The shape of the villages reflects the most widespread economic activity, livestock farming, with large central enclosures for livestock surrounded by large cylindrical huts with a conical roof.
Prevailing is the Christian religion, but there is no lack of those who practice the traditional Badimo religion.
