Western Sahara Country Info - Africa

Description and Basic Information

Western Sahara with its capital El-Aaiun is located in Africa (Northern Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean). It covers some 266,001 square kilometres (about the size of Colorado) with 273,008 citizens. Arabic and are the the languages spoken by people in Western Sahara. Algeria, Mauritania and Morocco are bordering countries.

Western Sahara is an area in North Africa bordering the Atlantic Ocean, between Mauritania and Morocco. Western Sahara depends on pastoral nomadism, fishing, and phosphate mining as the principal sources of income for the population. Mostly low, flat desert, with large areas of rocky or sandy surfaces rising to small mountains in south and northeast. Low-lying sand dunes cover the territory.

Pictures from Capital (El-Aaiun)

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About Western Sahara

The topography features mostly low, flat desert with large areas of rocky or sandy surfaces rising to small mountains in south and northeast. The average density of population is about 1 per km². The climate in Western Sahara can be described as hot, dry desert with rain being rare, cold offshore air currents produce fog and heavy dew. Potential natural disasters are hot, dry, dust/sand-laden sirocco wind can occur during winter and spring or widespread harmattan haze exists 60% of time, often severely restricting visibility.

To reach someone in Western Sahara dial +212 prior to a number. There are 2,000 installed telephones. And there are 0 registered mobile phones. The cellular networks operate on frequencies of 900 Mhz. Websites typically end with the top level domain ".eh". If you want to bring electric appliances (e.g. battery charger), keep in mind the local 230V - 50Hz. The following list are the 2 regions/states in Western Sahara we know off.

Demographic Statistics

In the year 2010, the total Sahrawi population grew at a rate of 3.17% (or by 15,576 citizens). With 4,488 deaths and 16,004 babies born, the natural increase rate lies at 2.34%. 4,060 persons more in total immigrated to the country than emmigrated.

An overview of age distribution in Western Sahara: 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.