Mauritania Country Info - Africa

Description and Basic Information

Mauritania with its capital Nouakchott is located in Africa (Northern Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean). It covers some 1,030,701 square kilometres (slightly larger than three times the size of New Mexico) with 3,364,000 citizens. Arabic, French and Wolof are the languages commonly used by the people in Mauritania (consider regional differences). Senegal, Algeria, Western Sahara and Mali are bordering countries.

Mauritania is a country in northwest Africa. Geographically part of the Maghreb, Mauritania borders Algeria, Senegal and Mali, along with the disputed territory of Western Sahara. Mauritania is a land about desert and ocean. It is of course no wonder that the main attractions for most tourists are the desert in Adrar and Tagant areas (around Atar), and the ocean in Banc d'Arguin (a natural reserve with dunes ending in the sea, full of millions of birds and protected by UNESCO). The climate is characterized by extremes in temperature and by meager and irregular rainfall. Annual temperature variations are small, although diurnal variations can be extreme.

Pictures from Capital (Nouakchott)

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About Mauritania

The landscape features mostly barren, flat plains of the Sahara and some central hills. The average density of population is about 3 per km². The climate in Mauritania can be described as desert with constantly hot, dry, dusty. Potential threats by nature are hot, dry, dust/sand-laden sirocco wind blows primarily in March and April or periodic droughts.

To reach someone in Mauritania dial +222 prior to a number. There are 74,500 installed telephones. And there are 2,182,000 registered mobile phones. The cellular networks operate on frequencies of 900 Mhz. Websites typically end with the top level domain ".mr". If you want to bring electric appliances (e.g. battery charger), keep in mind the local 220V - 50Hz. The following list are the 13 regions/states in Mauritania we know off.

Demographic Statistics

In the year 2010, the total Mauritanian population grew at a rate of 2.37% (or by 76,056 citizens). With 28,846 deaths and 107,914 babies born, the natural increase rate lies at 2.47%. -3,013 persons more in total emmigrated from the country than immigrated.

An overview of age distribution in Mauritania: 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.