BlackFacts Details

Haiti

National name: République dHaïti

Current government officials

Languages: Creole and French (both official)

Ethnicity/race: black 95%, mulatto and white 5%

Religions: Roman Catholic 80%, Protestant 16% (Baptist 10%, Pentecostal 4%, Adventist 1%, other 1%), other 3%, none 1%. Note: roughly half the population practices voodoo

National Holiday: Independence Day, January 1

Literacy rate: 48.7% (2006 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2013 est.): $13.42 billion; per capita $1,300. Real growth rate: 3.4%. Inflation: 6.3% (2013). Unemployment: 40.6% (2010 est.). Arable land: 36.04%. Agriculture: coffee, mangoes, sugarcane, rice, corn, sorghum; wood. Labor force: 4.81 million; note: shortage of skilled labor, unskilled labor abundant (2010); agriculture 38.1%, services 50.4%, industry 11.5%. Industries: sugar refining, flour milling, textiles, cement, light assembly industries based on imported parts. Natural resources: bauxite, copper, calcium carbonate, gold, marble, hydropower. Exports: $876.8 million (2013 est.): manufactures, coffee, oils, cocoa, mangoes. Imports: $2.697 billion (2013 est.): food, manufactured goods, machinery and transport equipment, fuels, raw materials. Major trading partners: U.S., Dominican Republic, Netherlands Antilles, China (2012).

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 50,000 (2012); mobile cellular: 6.095 million (2012). Broadcast media: several TV stations, including 1 government-owned; cable TV subscription service available; government-owned radio network; more than 250 private and community radio stations with about 50 FM stations in Port-au-Prince alone (2007). Internet hosts: 555 (2012). Internet users: 1 million (2009).

Transportation: Railways: n.a. Highways: 4,266 km (2009) Waterways: n.a. Ports and harbors: Cap-Haitien, Gonaives, Jacmel, Port-au-Prince. Airports: 14 (2013).

International disputes: since 2004, about 8,000 peacekeepers from the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) maintain civil order in Haiti; despite efforts to control illegal