Country profile

Historical Information

Historical and archaeological evidence indicates that by the year 1500, much of the modern Zambia was occupied by the Bantu-speaking horticulturalists, ancestors of the present inhabitants. In the late nineteenth century, the British South Africa Company administered various parts of what was to become Northern Rhodesia. In 1924, the British Colonial Office assumed responsibility for administering the territory. In 1953, Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) joined Nyasaland (Malawi) to form the Central African Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, despite the opposition of Northern Rhodesians' Africans. This Federation was dissolved in 1963. Soon after the Federation was dissolved, in October 1964, Zambia gained political independence and adopted a multiparty system of government. This system changed in 1972 when the country became a one party state. Zambia adopted he current multiparty system of government in 1991.

 

Geographical Conditions

Zambia is a landlocked sub Saharan country sharing borders with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Tanzania in the north; Malawi and Mozambique in the east; Zimbabwe and Botswana in the South; Namibia in the southwest and Angola in the west. Zambia covers a land area of 752,612 square kilometers, which is about 2.5 percent of Africa.

Zambia lies between 8 and 18 degrees south latitude and 20 and 35 degrees east longitude. It has a tropical climate and vegetation with three distinct seasons: the cool dry winter from May to August, a hot dry season during September and October, and a warm wet season from November to April.

Zambia has a number of major rivers that are the main sources of water-the Zambezi, Kafue, Luangwa and Luapula. The country also has major lakes such as Tanganyika, Mweru, Bangweulu, and the man- made Kariba. The northern part of the country receives the highest rainfall, with an annual average ranging from 1,100 mm to over 1,400 mm. The Southern and eastern parts of the country have less rainfall, ranging from 600 mm to 1,100 annually, which often results in droughts.

 

Key Economic Indicators,

Zambia's economy has experienced strong growth in recent years, with real GDP growth in 2005-12 more than 6% per year. Privatization of government-owned copper mines in the 1990s relieved the government from covering mammoth losses generated by the industry and greatly increased copper mining output and profitability to spur economic growth. Copper output has increased steadily since 2004, due to higher copper prices and foreign investment. In 2005, Zambia qualified for debt relief under the Highly Indebted Poor Country Initiative, consisting of approximately US$6 billion in debt relief.

GDP-per capita $1,700 (2012 est.)

Inflation              6.7        

Exchange Rate  1 USD    5.28

Labour force       5.839 Million (2012 est.)                              

 

Demographic indicators such current population

Zambia has one of the fastest growing populations in the Sub Saharan Africa. The Zambian population grew at a rate of 2.8 percent per annum during the inter-censal period 2000-2010.

The population of Zambia as captured during the 2010 Census of Population and Housing was 13,092,666. This represents an increase of 32.4 percent from the population of 9,885,591 captured during the 2000 Census.

Zambia is a multilingual and pluricultural country. The official language is English,
whilst local languages are spoken at home. The seven main languages in Zambia are: Bember, Lozi, Nyanja, Kaonde, Tonga, Lunda, and Luvale.

Political and administrative structures

Administratively, the country is divided into ten provinces and 103 districts. Of the ten provinces, two are predominantly urban namely Lusaka and Copperbelt provinces. The rest of the provinces are Central, Eastern, Northern, Luapula, Muchinga, North Western, Western and Southern.