Profile
Background and figures as recorded in the CIA World Factbook.
In the first half of the second millennium A.D., northern Mozambican port towns were frequented by traders from Somalia, Ethiopia, Egypt, Arabia, Persia, and India. The Portuguese were able to wrest much of the coastal trade from Arab Muslims in the centuries after 1500, and they set up their own colonies. Portugal did not relinquish Mozambique until 1975. Large-scale emigration, economic dependence on South Africa, a severe drought, and a prolonged civil war hindered the country's development until the mid-1990s.
- Capital
- Maputo
- Government
- presidential republic
- Population
- 34,206,144
- Area
- 799,380 sq km
- Location
- Southeastern Africa, bordering the Mozambique Channel, between South Africa and Tanzania
- Climate
- tropical to subtropical
- Natural resources
- coal; titanium; natural gas; hydropower; tantalum; graphite
- Languages
- Makhuwa 26.1%; Portuguese (official) 16.6%; Tsonga 8.6%; Nyanja 8.1…
- Religions
- Catholic 27.3%; Islam 19.1%; Pentecostal 16.7%; Saio/Zione 16.3%…
- Independence
- 25 June 1975 (from Portugal)
- Administrative divisions
- 10 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia), 1 city (cidade)*; Cabo Delgado, Gaza, Inhambane, Manica, Maputo, Cidade…
- Currency
- meticais (MZM)
- Export partners
- India 18%; China 13%; South Africa 9%; UAE 6%…
- Import partners
- South Africa 34%; China 14%; India 13%; UAE 6%…
Source: CIA World Factbook — a work of the US government, in the public domain