Togo (2001) | World (2002) | |
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Administrative divisions | 5 regions (regions, singular - region); De La Kara, Des Plateaux, Des Savanes, Du Centre, Maritime | 268 nations, dependent areas, other, and miscellaneous entries |
Age structure | 0-14 years:
45.63% (male 1,179,650; female 1,171,748) 15-64 years: 51.92% (male 1,302,197; female 1,373,247) 65 years and over: 2.45% (male 54,651; female 71,595) (2001 est.) |
0-14 years: 29.2% (male 932,581,592; female 885,688,851)
15-64 years: 63.7% (male 2,009,997,089; female 1,964,938,201) 65 years and over: 7.1% (male 193,549,180; female 247,067,032) (2002 est.) |
Agriculture - products | coffee, cocoa, cotton, yams, cassava (tapioca), corn, beans, rice, millet, sorghum; livestock; fish | - |
Airports | 9 (2000 est.) | - |
Airports - with paved runways | total:
2 2,438 to 3,047 m: 2 (2000 est.) |
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Airports - with unpaved runways | total:
7 914 to 1,523 m: 5 under 914 m: 2 (2000 est.) |
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Area | total:
56,785 sq km land: 54,385 sq km water: 2,400 sq km |
total: 510.072 million sq km
land: 148.94 million sq km water: 361.132 million sq km note: 70.8% of the world's surface is water, 29.2% is land |
Area - comparative | slightly smaller than West Virginia | land area about 16 times the size of the US |
Background | French Togoland became Togo in 1960. General Gnassingbe EYADEMA, installed as military ruler in 1967, is Africa's longest-serving head of state. Despite the facade of multiparty elections that resulted in EYADEMA's victory in 1993, the government continues to be dominated by the military. In addition, Togo has come under fire from international organizations for human rights abuses and is plagued by political unrest. Most bilateral and multilateral aid to Togo remains frozen. | Globally, the 20th century was marked by: (a) two devastating world wars; (b) the Great Depression of the 1930s; (c) the end of vast colonial empires; (d) rapid advances in science and technology, from the first airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina (US) to the landing on the moon; (e) the Cold War between the Western alliance and the Warsaw Pact nations; (f) a sharp rise in living standards in North America, Europe, and Japan; (g) increased concerns about the environment, including loss of forests, shortages of energy and water, the decline in biological diversity, and air pollution; (h) the onset of the AIDS epidemic; and (i) the ultimate emergence of the US as the only world superpower. The planet's population continues to explode: from 1 billion in 1820, to 2 billion in 1930, 3 billion in 1960, 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1988, and 6 billion in 2000. For the 21st century, the continued exponential growth in science and technology raises both hopes (e.g., advances in medicine) and fears (e.g., development of even more lethal weapons of war). |
Birth rate | 37.04 births/1,000 population (2001 est.) | 21.16 births/1,000 population (2002 est.) |
Budget | revenues:
$232 million expenditures: $252 million, including capital expenditures of $NA (1997 est.) |
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Capital | Lome | - |
Climate | tropical; hot, humid in south; semiarid in north | two large areas of polar climates separated by two rather narrow temperate zones form a wide equatorial band of tropical to subtropical climates |
Coastline | 56 km | 356,000 km |
Constitution | multiparty draft constitution approved by High Council of the Republic 1 July 1992; adopted by public referendum 27 September 1992 | - |
Country name | conventional long form:
Togolese Republic conventional short form: Togo local long form: Republique Togolaise local short form: none former: French Togoland |
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Currency | Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XOF); note - responsible authority is the Central Bank of the West African States | - |
Death rate | 11.24 deaths/1,000 population (2001 est.) | 8.93 deaths/1,000 population (2002 est.) |
Debt - external | $1.5 billion (1999) | $2 trillion for less developed countries (2001 est.) |
Diplomatic representation from the US | chief of mission:
Ambassador Karl HOFMANN embassy: Angle Rue Kouenou and Rue 15 Beniglato, Lome mailing address: B. P. 852, Lome telephone: [228] 21 29 91 through 21 29 94 FAX: [228] 21 79 52 |
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Diplomatic representation in the US | chief of mission:
Ambassador Akoussoulelov BODJONA chancery: 2208 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008 telephone: [1] (202) 234-4212 FAX: [1] (202) 232-3190 |
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Disputes - international | none | - |
Economic aid - recipient | $201.1 million (1995) | official development assistance (ODA) $50 billion (2001 est.) |
Economy - overview | This small sub-Saharan economy is heavily dependent on both commercial and subsistence agriculture, which provides employment for 65% of the labor force. Some basic foodstuffs must still be imported. Together, cocoa, coffee, and cotton generate some 40% of export earnings, with cotton being the most significant cash crop despite falling prices on the world market. In the industrial sector, phosphate mining is by far the most important activity. Togo is the world's fourth largest producer, and geological advantages keep production costs low. The recently privatized mining operation, Office Togolais des Phosphates (OTP), is slowly recovering from a steep fall in prices in the early 1990's, but continues to face the challenge of tough foreign competition, exacerbated by weakening demand. Togo serves as a regional commercial and trade center. It continues to expand its duty-free export-processing zone (EPZ), launched in 1989, which has attracted enterprises from France, Italy, Scandinavia, the US, India, and China and created jobs for Togolese nationals. The government's decade-long effort, supported by the World Bank and the IMF, to implement economic reform measures, encourage foreign investment, and bring revenues in line with expenditures has stalled. Progress depends on following through on privatization, increased openness in government financial operations, progress towards legislative elections, and possible downsizing of the military, on which the regime has depended to stay in place. Lack of foreign aid, deterioration of the financial sector, energy shortages, and depressed commodity prices continue to constrain economic growth; however, Togo did realize a 3% gain in GDP in 1999. The takeover of the national power company by a Franco-Canadian consortium in 2000 should ease the energy crisis and if successful legislative elections pave the way for increased aid, growth should rise to 5% a year in 2001-02. | Growth in global output (gross world product, GWP) fell from 4.8% in 2000 to 2.2% in 2001. The causes: slowdowns in the US economy (21% of GWP) and in the 15 EU economies (20% of GWP); continued stagnation in the Japanese economy (7.3% of GWP); and spillover effects in the less developed regions of the world. China, the second largest economy in the world (12% of GWP), proved an exception, continuing its rapid annual growth, officially announced as 7.3% but estimated by many observers as perhaps two percentage points lower. Russia (2.6% of GWP), with 5.2% growth, continued to make uneven progress, its GDP per capita still only one-third that of the leading industrial nations. The other 14 successor nations of the USSR and the other old Warsaw Pact nations again experienced widely divergent growth rates; the three Baltic nations were strong performers, in the 5% range of growth. The developing nations also varied in their growth results, with many countries facing population increases that eat up gains in output. Externally, the nation-state, as a bedrock economic-political institution, is steadily losing control over international flows of people, goods, funds, and technology. Internally, the central government often finds its control over resources slipping as separatist regional movements - typically based on ethnicity - gain momentum, e.g., in many of the successor states of the former Soviet Union, in the former Yugoslavia, in India, in Indonesia, and in Canada. In Western Europe, governments face the difficult political problem of channeling resources away from welfare programs in order to increase investment and strengthen incentives to seek employment. The addition of 80 million people each year to an already overcrowded globe is exacerbating the problems of pollution, desertification, underemployment, epidemics, and famine. Because of their own internal problems and priorities, the industrialized countries devote insufficient resources to deal effectively with the poorer areas of the world, which, at least from the economic point of view, are becoming further marginalized. The introduction of the euro as the common currency of much of Western Europe in January 1999, while paving the way for an integrated economic powerhouse, poses economic risks because of varying levels of income and cultural and political differences among the participating nations. The terrorist attacks on the US on 11 September 2001 accentuate a further growing risk to global prosperity, illustrated, for example, by the reallocation of resources away from investment to anti-terrorist programs. (For specific economic developments in each country of the world in 2001, see the individual country entries.) |
Electricity - consumption | 511.6 million kWh (1999) | - |
Electricity - exports | 0 kWh (1999) | - |
Electricity - imports | 426 million kWh
note: electricity supplied by Ghana (1999) |
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Electricity - production | 92 million kWh (1999) | - |
Electricity - production by source | fossil fuel:
97.83% hydro: 2.17% nuclear: 0% other: 0% (1999) |
fossil fuel: NA%
hydro: NA% nuclear: NA% other: NA% |
Elevation extremes | lowest point:
Atlantic Ocean 0 m highest point: Mont Agou 986 m |
lowest point: Bentley Subglacial Trench -2,540 m
note: in the oceanic realm, Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench is the lowest point, lying -10,924 m below the surface of the Pacific Ocean highest point: Mount Everest 8,850 m (1999 est.) |
Environment - current issues | deforestation attributable to slash-and-burn agriculture and the use of wood for fuel; water pollution presents health hazards and hinders the fishing industry; air pollution increasing in urban areas | large areas subject to overpopulation, industrial disasters, pollution (air, water, acid rain, toxic substances), loss of vegetation (overgrazing, deforestation, desertification), loss of wildlife, soil degradation, soil depletion, erosion |
Environment - international agreements | party to:
Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements |
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Ethnic groups | native African (37 tribes; largest and most important are Ewe, Mina, and Kabre) 99%, European and Syrian-Lebanese less than 1% | - |
Exchange rates | Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XOF) per US dollar - 699.21 (January 2001), 711.98 (2000), 615.70 (1999), 589.95 (1998), 583.67 (1997), 511.55 (1996); note - from 1 January 1999, the XOF is pegged to the euro at a rate of 655.957 XOF per euro | - |
Executive branch | chief of state:
President Gen. Gnassingbe EYADEMA (since 14 April 1967) head of government: Prime Minister Agbeyome KODJO (since 29 August 2000) cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president and the prime minister elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term; election last held 21 June 1998 (next to be held NA 2003); prime minister appointed by the president election results: Gnassingbe EYADEMA reelected president; percent of vote - Gnassingbe EYADEMA 52.13%, Gilchrist OLYMPIO 34.12%, other 13.75% |
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Exports | $336 million (f.o.b., 2000) | $6.3 trillion f.o.b. (2001 est.) |
Exports - commodities | cotton, phosphates, coffee, cocoa | the whole range of industrial and agricultural goods and services |
Exports - partners | Nigeria, Brazil, Canada, Philippines (1999) | in value, about 75% of exports from the developed countries |
Fiscal year | calendar year | - |
Flag description | five equal horizontal bands of green (top and bottom) alternating with yellow; there is a white five-pointed star on a red square in the upper hoist-side corner; uses the popular pan-African colors of Ethiopia | - |
GDP | purchasing power parity - $7.3 billion (2000 est.) | GWP (gross world product) - purchasing power parity - $47 trillion (2001 est.) |
GDP - composition by sector | agriculture:
42% industry: 21% services: 37% (1997) |
agriculture: 4%
industry: 32% services: 64% (2001 est.) |
GDP - per capita | purchasing power parity - $1,500 (2000 est.) | purchasing power parity - $7,600 (2001 est.) |
GDP - real growth rate | 3.4% (2000 est.) | 2.2% (2001 est.) |
Geographic coordinates | 8 00 N, 1 10 E | - |
Geography - note | - | the world is now thought to be about 4.55 billion years old, just about one-third of the 13-billion-year age estimated for the universe |
Highways | total:
7,520 km paved: 2,376 km unpaved: 5,144 km (1996) |
total: NA km
paved: NA km unpaved: NA km |
Household income or consumption by percentage share | lowest 10%:
NA% highest 10%: NA% |
lowest 10%: NA%
highest 10%: NA% |
Illicit drugs | transit hub for Nigerian heroin and cocaine traffickers | - |
Imports | $452 million (f.o.b., 2000) | $6.3 trillion f.o.b. (2001 est.) |
Imports - commodities | machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, petroleum products | the whole range of industrial and agricultural goods and services |
Imports - partners | Ghana, China, France, Cote d'Ivoire (1999) | in value, about 75% of imports into the developed countries |
Independence | 27 April 1960 (from French-administered UN trusteeship) | - |
Industrial production growth rate | NA% | 6% (2000 est.) |
Industries | phosphate mining, agricultural processing, cement; handicrafts, textiles, beverages | dominated by the onrush of technology, especially in computers, robotics, telecommunications, and medicines and medical equipment; most of these advances take place in OECD nations; only a small portion of non-OECD countries have succeeded in rapidly adjusting to these technological forces; the accelerated development of new industrial (and agricultural) technology is complicating already grim environmental problems |
Infant mortality rate | 70.43 deaths/1,000 live births (2001 est.) | 51.55 deaths/1,000 live births (2002 est.) |
Inflation rate (consumer prices) | 2.5% (2000 est.) | developed countries 1% to 4% typically; developing countries 5% to 60% typically (2001 est.); national inflation rates vary widely in individual cases, from declining prices in Japan to hyperinflation in several Third World countries |
International organization participation | ACCT, ACP, AfDB, CCC, ECA, ECOWAS, Entente, FAO, FZ, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, ITU, MIPONUH, NAM, OAU, OIC, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WADB, WAEMU, WCL, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO | - |
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) | 3 (2000) | 10,350 (2000 est.) |
Irrigated land | 70 sq km (1993 est.) | 2,714,320 sq km (1998 est.) |
Judicial branch | Court of Appeal or Cour d'Appel; Supreme Court or Cour Supreme | - |
Labor force | 1.74 million (1996) | NA |
Labor force - by occupation | agriculture 65%, industry 5%, services 30% (1998 est.) | agriculture NA%, industry NA%, services NA% |
Land boundaries | total:
1,647 km border countries: Benin 644 km, Burkina Faso 126 km, Ghana 877 km |
the land boundaries in the world total 250,472 km (not counting shared boundaries twice) |
Land use | arable land:
38% permanent crops: 7% permanent pastures: 4% forests and woodland: 17% other: 34% (1993 est.) |
arable land: 10.58%
permanent crops: 1% other: 88.42% (1998 est.) |
Languages | French (official and the language of commerce), Ewe and Mina (the two major African languages in the south), Kabye (sometimes spelled Kabiye) and Dagomba (the two major African languages in the north) | Chinese, Mandarin 14.37%, Hindi 6.02%, English 5.61%, Spanish 5.59%, Bengali 3.4%, Portuguese 2.63%, Russian 2.75%, Japanese 2.06%, German, Standard 1.64%, Korean 1.28%, French 1.27% (2000 est.)
note: percents are for "first language" speakers only |
Legal system | French-based court system | all members of the UN plus Switzerland are parties to the statute that established the International Court of Justice (ICJ) or World Court |
Legislative branch | unicameral National Assembly (81 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
elections: last held 21 March 1999 (next due to be held NA October 2001) election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - RPT 79, independents 2 note: Togo's main opposition parties boycotted the election because of EYADEMA's alleged manipulation of 1998 presidential polling; in March of 1999, opposition parties entered into negotiations with the president over the establishment of an independent electoral commission and a new round of legislative elections, now scheduled for October 2001 |
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Life expectancy at birth | total population:
54.35 years male: 52.38 years female: 56.38 years (2001 est.) |
total population: 63.94 years
male: 62.28 years female: 65.67 years (2002 est.) |
Literacy | definition:
age 15 and over can read and write total population: 51.7% male: 67% female: 37% (1995 est.) |
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 77% male: 83% female: 71% (1995 est.) |
Location | Western Africa, bordering the Bight of Benin, between Benin and Ghana | - |
Map references | Africa | Physical Map of the World, Political Map of the World, Standard Time Zones of the World |
Maritime claims | exclusive economic zone:
200 NM territorial sea: 30 NM |
a variety of situations exist, but in general, most countries make the following claims: contiguous zone - 24 NM; continental shelf - 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation, or 200 NM or to the edge of the continental margin; exclusive fishing zone - 200 NM; exclusive economic zone - 200 NM; territorial sea - 12 NM; boundary situations with neighboring states prevent many countries from extending their fishing or economic zones to a full 200 NM; 43 nations and other areas that are landlocked include Afghanistan, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Czech Republic, Ethiopia, Holy See (Vatican City), Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malawi, Mali, Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal, Niger, Paraguay, Rwanda, San Marino, Slovakia, Swaziland, Switzerland, Tajikistan, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan, West Bank, Zambia, Zimbabwe; two of these, Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan, are doubly landlocked |
Merchant marine | total:
1 ship (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 2,603 GRT/2,800 DWT ships by type: specialized tanker 1 (2000 est.) |
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Military branches | Army, Navy, Air Force, Gendarmerie | - |
Military expenditures - dollar figure | $27 million (FY96) | aggregate real expenditure on arms worldwide in 1999 remained at approximately the 1998 level, about three-quarters of a trillion dollars (1999 est.) |
Military expenditures - percent of GDP | 2% (FY96) | roughly 2% of gross world product (1999 est.) |
Military manpower - availability | males age 15-49:
1,175,528 (2001 est.) |
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Military manpower - fit for military service | males age 15-49:
616,622 (2001 est.) |
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National holiday | Independence Day, 27 April (1960) | - |
Nationality | noun:
Togolese (singular and plural) adjective: Togolese |
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Natural hazards | hot, dry harmattan wind can reduce visibility in north during winter; periodic droughts | large areas subject to severe weather (tropical cyclones), natural disasters (earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions) |
Natural resources | phosphates, limestone, marble, arable land | the rapid depletion of nonrenewable mineral resources, the depletion of forest areas and wetlands, the extinction of animal and plant species, and the deterioration in air and water quality (especially in Eastern Europe, the former USSR, and China) pose serious long-term problems that governments and peoples are only beginning to address |
Net migration rate | 0.15 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2001 est.) | - |
Political parties and leaders | Action Committee for Renewal or CAR [Yawovi AGBOYIBO]; Coordination des Forces Nouvelles or CFN [Joseph KOFFIGOH]; Democratic Convention of African Peoples or CDPA [Leopold GNININVI]; Party for Democracy and Renewal or PDR [Zarifou AYEVA]; Patriotic Pan-African Convergence or CPP [Edem KODJO]; Rally of the Togolese People or RPT [President Gen. Gnassingbe EYADEMA]; Union of Forces for Change or UFC [Gilchrist OLYMPIO (in exile), Jeane-Pierre FABRE, general secretary in Togo]; Union of Independent Liberals or ULI [Jacques AMOUZO]
note: Rally of the Togolese People or RPT, led by President EYADEMA, was the only party until the formation of multiple parties was legalized 12 April 1991 |
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Political pressure groups and leaders | NA | - |
Population | 5,153,088
note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2001 est.) |
6,233,821,945 (July 2002 est.) |
Population below poverty line | 32% (1989 est.) | - |
Population growth rate | 2.6% (2001 est.) | 1.23% (2002 est.) |
Ports and harbors | Kpeme, Lome | Chiba, Houston, Kawasaki, Kobe, Marseille, Mina' al Ahmadi (Kuwait), New Orleans, New York, Rotterdam, Yokohama |
Radio broadcast stations | AM 2, FM 9, shortwave 4 (1998) | AM NA, FM NA, shortwave NA |
Radios | 940,000 (1997) | NA |
Railways | total:
525 km (1995) narrow gauge: 525 km 1.000-m gauge |
total: 1,201,337 km includes about 190,000 to 195,000 km of electrified routes of which 147,760 km are in Europe, 24,509 km in the Far East, 11,050 km in Africa, 4,223 km in South America, and 4,160 km in North America; note - fastest speed in daily service is 300 km/hr attained by France's Societe Nationale des Chemins-de-Fer Francais (SNCF) Le Train a Grande Vitesse (TGV) - Atlantique line
broad gauge: 251,153 km standard gauge: 710,754 km narrow gauge: 239,430 km |
Religions | indigenous beliefs 59%, Christian 29%, Muslim 12% | Christians 32.88% (of which Roman Catholics 17.39%, Protestants 5.62%, Orthodox 3.54%, Anglicans 1.31%), Muslims 19.54%, Hindus 13.34%, Buddhists 5.92%, Sikhs 0.38%, Jews 0.24%, other religions 12.6%, non-religious 12.63%, atheists 2.47% (2000 est.) |
Sex ratio | at birth:
1.03 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.76 male(s)/female total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2001 est.) |
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.78 male(s)/female total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2002 est.) |
Suffrage | NA years of age; universal adult | - |
Telephone system | general assessment:
fair system based on a network of microwave radio relay routes supplemented by open-wire lines and a mobile cellular system domestic: microwave radio relay and open-wire lines for conventional system; cellular system has capacity of 10,000 telephones international: satellite earth stations - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) and 1 Symphonie |
general assessment: NA
domestic: NA international: NA |
Telephones - main lines in use | 25,000 (1997) | NA |
Telephones - mobile cellular | 2,995 (1997) | NA |
Television broadcast stations | 3 (plus two repeaters) (1997) | NA |
Terrain | gently rolling savanna in north; central hills; southern plateau; low coastal plain with extensive lagoons and marshes | the greatest ocean depth is the Mariana Trench at 10,924 m in the Pacific Ocean |
Total fertility rate | 5.32 children born/woman (2001 est.) | 2.7 children born/woman (2002 est.) |
Unemployment rate | NA% | 30% combined unemployment and underemployment in many non-industrialized countries; developed countries typically 4%-12% unemployment (2001 est.) |
Waterways | 50 km (Mono river) | - |