Dominican Republic Country Info - North America

Description and Basic Information

Dominican Republic with its capital Santo Domingo is located in North America (Caribbean, eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola). It covers some 48,731 square kilometres (slightly more than twice the size of New Hampshire) with 9,507,000 citizens. Spanish is the language spoken by people in Dominican Republic. Haiti is a bordering country.

The Dominican Republic is a Caribbean country; not to be confused with the Caribbean island country of Dominica. The island lies in the middle of the hurricane belt and is subject to severe storms from June to October. Citizens of most countries can purchase a tourist card on arrival. Guaguas are the traditional means of transport in the Dominican Republic. Guaguas will be filled to the brink with people and luggage; expect to squeeze to fit more people who will be picked up en route :D. Taxi services are available but potentially dangerous when dealing with unlicensed drivers. In all cases, it's a good idea to go with a licensed driver and negotiate a price for your destination before you leave. Do not drink tap water! Locals, even in the most rural areas, will either boil their water or purchase bottled water. Eating salads or other food that may be washed in tap water is not advisable. Dominicans are kind and peaceful people and the Dominican Republic is generally a safe country. Still a third world country, poverty is still rampant so you should take common sense precautions. Attempts at speaking Spanish are a good sign of respect for the local people.

Pictures from Capital (Santo Domingo)

Photos provided by Panoramio are under the copyright of their owners.

About Dominican Republic

The topography features rugged highlands and mountains with fertile valleys interspersed. The average density of population is about 195 per km². The climate in Dominican Republic can be described as tropical maritime with little seasonal temperature variation, seasonal variation in rainfall. Potential natural disasters are lies in the middle of the hurricane belt and subject to severe storms from June to October or occasional flooding or periodic droughts.

To reach someone in Dominican Republic dial +1-809 and +1-82 prior to a number. There are 965,400 installed telephones. And there are 8,630,000 registered mobile phones. The cellular networks operate on frequencies of 1800, 1900 Mhz. Websites typically end with the top level domain ".do". If you want to bring electric appliances (e.g. battery charger), keep in mind the local 110V - 60Hz. The following list are the 32 regions/states in Dominican Republic we know off.

Demographic Statistics

In the year 2010, the total Dominican population grew at a rate of 1.48% (or by 145,154 citizens). With 51,617 deaths and 216,752 babies born, the natural increase rate lies at 1.69%. -19,981 persons more in total emmigrated from the country than immigrated.

An overview of age distribution in Dominican Republic: 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.