Cameroon Country Info - Africa

Description and Basic Information

Cameroon with its capital Yaoundé is located in Africa (Western Africa, bordering the Bight of Biafra). It covers some 475,441 square kilometres (slightly larger than California) with 18,467,000 citizens. English and French are the the languages spoken by people in Cameroon. Chad, Central African Republic, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Republic of the Congo and Nigeria are bordering countries.

Cameroon is in West Africa. Cameroon is a diverse and multi ethnic country. While it is not the largest country in Africa, in some ways it's as large as Africa itself. Known as Africa in miniature it features French and English speaking portions, Muslim and Christian dominated regions, the tallest mountain in West Africa and terrain that includes rain forest, desert plains, mountains and high plateau. If you are going during the summer, plan on lots of rain every day. It might be cold up in the mountains, especially at nights. Most people will need a visa and it is very advisable to obtain it before arriving. French and English are the official languages in Cameroon although there are over 276 recognized languages in Cameroon. The Northwest and Southwest provinces are anglophone although in some areas pidgin English is more common. The rest of the country is predominantly francophone although almost all areas will also have local languages.

Pictures from Capital (Yaoundé)

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About Cameroon

The terrain offers diverse, with coastal plain in southwest, dissected plateau in center, mountains in west, plains in north. The average density of population is about 38 per km². The climate in Cameroon can be described as varying with terrain, from tropical along coast to semiarid and hot in north. Possible natural disasters include volcanic activity with periodic releases of poisonous gases from Lake Nyos and Lake Monoun volcanoes.

To reach someone in Cameroon dial +237 prior to a number. There are 323,800 installed telephones. And there are 7,397,000 registered mobile phones. The cellular networks operate on frequencies of 900 Mhz. Websites typically end with the top level domain ".cm". If you want to bring electric appliances (e.g. battery charger), keep in mind the local 220V - 50Hz. The following list are the 10 regions/states in Cameroon we know off.

Demographic Statistics

In the year 2010, the total Cameroonian population grew at a rate of 2.16% (or by 416,175 citizens). With 231,723 deaths and 647,898 babies born, the natural increase rate lies at 2.16%. 0 persons more in total immigrated to the country than emmigrated.

An overview of age distribution in Cameroon: Each pair of bars represents a single age group (male/female). Each group is spanning 5 years. E.g. 0 to 5 years, 5 to 10 etc. and group "0 to 5" being at the left end and "100 +" at the right end of the chart.

Based on content from wikitravel.org. The original article can be found here based on the work of these users.
Geographic information is based on the data provided by geonames.org, CIA factsbook and Unesco.