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GABON (Continued) Budget: (1979) revenues $1.1 billion, current expenditures $605 million, development expenditures $344 million

Monetary conversion rate: 212.7 Communaute Financiere Africaine francs=US$1 (1979)

Fiscal year: calendar year

COMMUNICATIONS
Railroads: 970 km standard gauge (1.437 m) under construction; 180 km are completed

Highways: 6,947 km total; 459 km paved, 5,517 km gravel and improved and 971 km unimproved

Inland waterways: approximately 1,600 km perennially navigable

Pipelines: crude oil, 270 km

Ports: 2 major (Owendo and Port-Gentil), 3 minor

Civil air: 20 major transport aircraft

Airfields: 121 total, 98 usable; 6 with permanent-surface runways; 2 with runways 2,440-3,659 m, 22 with runways 1,220-2,439 m

Telecommunications: adequate system of open-wire, radio-relay, tropospheric scatter links and radiocommunication stations; 1 Atlantic Ocean satellite station; 7 AM, 2 FM, and 8 TV stations; 11,600 telephones (1.2 per 100 popl.)

DEFENSE FORCES
Military manpower: males 15-49, 158,000; 81,000 fit for military service; 5,000 reach military age (20) annually

Military budget: for fiscal year ending 31 December 1981, $49.5 million; 3.1% of central government budget

 

LAND
10,360 km$2$; 25% uncultivated savanna, 16% swamps, 4% forest parks, 55% upland cultivable areas, built-up areas, and other

Land boundaries: 740 km

WATER
Limits of territorial waters (claimed): 50 nm

Coastline: 80 km

PEOPLE
Population: 635,000 (July 1982), average annual growth rate 2.8%

Nationality: noun—Gambian(s); adjective—Gambian

Ethnic divisions: over 99% Africans (Mandinka 40.8%, Fulani 13.5%, Wolof 12.9%, remainder made up of several smaller groups), fewer than 1% Europeans and Lebanese

Religion: 85% Muslim, 15% animist and Christian

Language: English official; Mandinka and Wolof most widely used vernaculars

Literacy: about 10%

Labor force: approx. 165,000, mostly engaged in subsistence farming; about 15,000 are wage earners (government, trade, services)

Organized labor: 25% to 30% of wage labor force at most

GOVERNMENT
Official name: Republic of The Gambia

Type: republic; independent since February 1965 (The Gambia and Senegal in early 1982 formed a loose confederation named Senegambia, which calls for the integration of their armed forces, economies and monetary systems, and foreign policies)

Capital: Banjul

Political subdivisions: Banjul and five divisions  79