KEY FACTS

Joined Commonwealth: 1966
Population: 2,004,000 (2012)
GDP p.c. growth: 2.7% p.a. 1990–2012
UN HDI 2012: world ranking 119
Official languages: Setswana, English
Time: GMT plus 2hr
Currency: Pula (P)

Geography

Area: 582,000 sq km
Coastline: none
Capital: Gaborone

The Republic of Botswana is a large, roughly circular, landlocked plateau in the centre of Southern Africa, bordered by South Africa, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Main towns:

Gaborone (capital, pop. 237,000 in 2010), Francistown (98,000), Molepolole (74,500), Mogoditshane (59,900), Selebi–Phikwe (58,100), Maun (57,600), Serowe (53,600), Mahalapye (50,200), Kanye (49,300), Mochudi (48,000), Palapye (36,300), Lobatse (31,900), Tlokweng (31,700), Thamaga (24,000), Bobonong (23,300) and Ramotswa (21,700). Most of Botswana’s main settlements are in the south-east of the country.

Society

KEY FACTS 2012

Population per sq km: 3.4
Life expectancy: 47 years
Net primary enrolment: 84% (2009)

Population:

2,004,000 (2012); 62 per cent of people live in urban areas; growth 1.7 per cent p.a. 1990–2012, with rapid growth in urban areas; birth rate 24 per 1,000 people (46 in 1970); life expectancy 47 years, down from a peak of 63 years in the early 1990s, as a result of AIDS (52 in 1970). Around 80 per cent of the people are of Setswana-speaking origin and most of the rest of Kalanga-speaking origin. Bushmen (i.e. San or Basarwa), Herero, Mbukushu, Yei and Mazezuru, whites and others constitute the balance.

Language:

Setswana is the national language; English is an official Language.

Education:

Public spending on education was eight per cent of GDP in 2009. There are ten years of compulsory education starting at the age of six. Primary school comprises seven years and secondary five. Some 93 per cent of pupils complete primary school (2008). The school year starts in January. The Brigadesmovement was founded in 1963 in Serowe by Patrick van Rensburg to provide vocational training in skilled trades for early school-leavers. There are about 30 vocational and technical training centres, four teacher-training colleges, two colleges of education and one university, the University of Botswana. A second public university, the Botswana International University of Science and Technology, is under construction at Palapye. It opened in August 2012, initially admitting a few hundred students, and based at the Oodi College of Applied Arts and Technology, until the Palapye campus is ready. The Institute of Development Management was established in 1974 as a regional institution with campuses in Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. Other tertiary institutions include Botswana College of Agriculture, Botswana Institute of Administration and Commerce, and Botswana College of Distance and Open Learning. Literacy among people aged 15–24 is 95 per cent (2010). In 1997 Botswana hosted the 13th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers in Gaborone – Commonwealth Education Ministers meet every three years to discuss issues of mutual concern and interest