Tanzania is a country located in East Africa. It has an area of 945,087 square kilometers and a population of approximately 56 million people. The ethnic composition of Tanzania is largely Bantu (99%), with minority groups such as the Hadza, San and Maasai making up the remaining 1%. The majority of the population are adherents to Christianity, with around 45% following Protestantism, 35% following Roman Catholicism and 15% following Islam. Education is compulsory for children up to the age of 16 and the literacy rate is estimated to be around 78%. The official language is Swahili but there are also many other languages spoken throughout the country such as English, Arabic and various tribal languages. The capital city Dodoma has an estimated population of over 1 million people making it one of the largest cities in Tanzania. Check hyperrestaurant to learn more about Tanzania in 2009.
Social conditions
Tanzania has one of the lowest GDP per capita in the world and more than one in five Tanzanians live in poverty (under US $ 2 per day). Visit AbbreviationFinder to see the definitions of TZA and acronym for Tanzania. Only half of the population has access to clean water. Every twenty children die during their first year of life.
The healthcare sector is mainly run by the state, and the goal has been healthcare for everyone, but financial problems have made this impossible. Of the total state expenditure in 2009, about 5 percent went to health care. There are 10 hospital beds per 10,000 residents (2006) and one doctor per 100,000 (2008). At only half of the deliveries are qualified personnel available. AIDS is a very big problem, especially in the northwestern parts of Tanzania. However, the number of infected persons has decreased during the 00s; approximately 6 percent of the population aged 15–49 are estimated to be affected (2009). The self-governing Zanzibar has significantly fewer numbers of infected. After HIV/AIDS, lung diseases, malaria, diarrhea and tuberculosis are the most common causes of death. Check to see Tanzania population.
The country’s constitution prohibits discrimination against women, but other legislation has not yet been adapted. In addition, the judiciary takes into account traditional laws as well as sharia, which affects women’s right to inheritance. Violence against women is very common and violence within the marriage is not prohibited. On the other hand, it is rape, but it does not prevent sexual abuse from being common. Since 1998, it has been formally prohibited to perform genital mutilation (female circumcision) on girls under the age of 18, but the practice is still common. Girls start primary school to the same extent as boys. The proportion of female MPs amounts to 31 percent.
HUMAN AND ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
East African state. At the 2002 census, the Republic of Tanzania (born in 1964 from the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar) registered 34,569,232 residents (37,445,400 residents, According to an estimate of July 2006), divided into about 120 ethnic groups, including Sukuma, Haya, Nyakusa, Nyamwezi and Chaga (over one million individuals each). Most Tanzanians are of Bantu stock, while other groups are of Nilotic origin, including the Maasai and Luo nomads, which are found in greater numbers in the neighboring state of Kenya. Each ethnic group has its own language, however the national languages are English and Swahili (based on Bantu with strong Arab contributions). In 1996the National Assembly moved to the official capital Dodoma (149,180 residents at the 2002 census), but many government bodies remained in the old capital Dār es-Salāām.
Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world and in 2004it ranked 162nd in the world ranking of the United Nations Human Development Index. Despite in the early 21st century. the macroeconomic situation has shown signs of improvement (average annual change in GDP in the period 1995 – 2004: + 5.2 %; in 2005: + 6.9 %), the average living conditions of Tanzanians have not changed. The economy depends to a large extent on agriculture, which contributes to forming over 43 % of the gross domestic product, provides 85% of exports (coffee, tea, cotton, sisal, cashews, cloves, pyrethrum) and employs about 80 % of the workforce, even if topographical and climatic conditions limit the cultivated area to just 4% of the territory. The best soils are used for export crops (coffee, cotton), and the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba are best known for producing cloves and clove oil. Tanzania is endowed with an impressive biodiversity; about a fifth of the land area is dedicated to the protection of wildlife and precluded from human settlement: from the vast plains of the Serengeti National Park in the north, to the sanctuaries of various primate species of Gombe and Mahale in the west, to the reserves of Ruaha and of Selous to the south (in the latter reserve it is estimated that 32,000 elephants live), to Lake Manyara which is home to over 400 species of birds.
The main industrial activities concern the processing of agricultural products (sugar factories), the production of goods to replace imported products (tobacco, paper, fabrics, rubber) and some heavy industries (cement, nitrogen fertilizers). Much of the electricity produced is of water origin: this explains the negative repercussions that the persistent lack of electricity due to the long drought of 2002 – 03 had on the entire industrial system, which has minimized the functionality of hydroelectric basins. The subsoil contains deposits of phosphates, coal, gold and precious stones: in particular the latter two contribute annually to form about half of the total value of exports. In addition, the mining sector, thanks to a favorable tax system, has been the subject of numerous investments, especially foreign ones.
Starting from the end of the eighties of the 20th century, the government has promoted a series of reforms to abolish state controls on the economy and to encourage more active participation of the private sector, but this program has encountered serious difficulties, particularly in the water and transport sectors, mainly due to widespread corruption. Tanzania has a chronically passive trade balance and had a high level of external indebtedness until 2005, when the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank canceled the country’s external debt (the interest payments on the absorbed about 40% of government spending). However, the economy remains dependent on aid from bilateral donors and international financial institutions, which help alleviate poverty and modernize antiquated economic infrastructures. Tourism, in constant expansion (visitors went from 153,000 in 1990 to 750,000 in 2005), has become the most dynamic sector of the economy.