Note: The menu shows the 36 African countries where Africare has worked, not the other African countries.

 

Guinea-Bissau (Map courtesy of The World Factbook)

Guinea-Bissau

REGION: West Africa
CAPITAL CITY: Bissau
POPULATION: 1,540,000
LAND AREA: The size of Delaware and Maryland combined

Guinea-Bissau is one of the five least-developed countries in the world. For decades, it has struggled with serious poverty and the related problems of hunger, ill health and environmental degradation. Shifts in leadership, including a coup d'état in May 1999, and sporadic civil unrest have exacerbated the difficult developmental conditions. Amid the internal upheavals, Guinea-Bissau's various leaders since the 1980s started steering the country toward free-market economics. Elections were held beginning in 1994. However, they did not result in domestic peace — and internal unrest continues to the present day. Guinea-Bissau depends mainly on farming and fishing. Cashew crops have increased in recent years, and the country now ranks sixth internationally in cashew production.

 

Country Stats

Life expectancy: 45.8 years (USA: 77.9)

Under-5 child mortality: 200/1,000 live births (USA: 7/1,000)

HIV prevalence, ages 15-49: [2.1 - 6.0]% (USA: [0.4 - 1.0]%)

Physicians per 100,000 people: 12 (USA: 256)

People undernourished: 39% (USA: 0%)

People with access to safe drinking water: 59% (USA: 100%)

Adult literacy: 44.8%* (USA: 99%)

Annual income, one way to look at it (GDP per capita, PPP US$): $827 (USA: $41,890)

Annual income, another way to look at it (GDP per capita): $190 (USA: $41,890)

People living on less than $1 a day: Not available (USA: 0%)

(HIV prevalence statistics, UNAIDS. All other statistics, 2007/2008 Human Development Report, UNDP: asterisk* means approximate value.)

 

(Updated, Dec. 18, 2007)