ARGENTINA
- Land area: 1,056,636 sq mi (2,736,690 sq km); total area: 1,068,296 sq mi (2,766,890 sq km)
- Population (2014 est.): 43,024,374 (growth rate: .95%); birth rate: 16.88/1000; infant mortality rate: 9.962/1000; life expectancy: 77.51
- Capital and largest city (2011 est.): Buenos Aires, 13.528 million
- Other large cities: Córdoba, 1.556 million; Rosario 1.283 million; Mendoza 957,000; San Miguel de Tucuman 868,000; La Plata 759,000 (2011)
- Monetary unit: Peso
- Telephone code: 54
- Electricity: 220V, 50Hz; plug/sockets Type C (Euro) and I
- National name: República Argentina (RA)
- Languages: Spanish (official), English, Italian, German, French
- Ethnicity/race: white (mostly Spanish and Italian) 97%, mestizo (mixed white and Amerindian ancestry), Amerindian, or other non-white groups 3%
- Religions: nominally Roman Catholic 92% (less than 20% practicing), Protestant 2%, Jewish 2%, other 4%
- National Holiday: Revolution Day, May 25
- Literacy rate: 97.9% (2011 est.)
- Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2013 est.): $771 billion; per capita $18,600. Real growth rate: 3.5%. Inflation: 20.8% official rate; actual rate may be double the official rate. Unemployment: 7.5%. Arable land:13.68%. Agriculture: sunflower seeds, lemons, soybeans, grapes, corn, tobacco, peanuts, tea, wheat; livestock. Labor force: 173.2 million: note: urban areas only (2011 est.); agriculture: 5%, industry: 23%, services: 72% (2009 est.). Industries: food processing, motor vehicles, consumer durables, textiles, chemicals and petrochemicals, printing, metallurgy, steel. Natural resources: fertile plains of the pampas, lead, zinc, tin, copper, iron ore, manganese, petroleum, uranium. Exports: $85.08 billion (2013 est.): edible oils, fuels and energy, cereals, feed, motor vehicles. Imports: $71.3 billion (2013 est.): machinery and equipment, motor vehicles, chemicals, metal manufactures, plastics.Major trading partners: Brazil, Chile, U.S., China, U.S., Germany (2012).
- Communications: Telephones: main lines in use 10 million (2012); mobile cellular: 58.6 million (2012). Broadcast media: government owns a TV station and a radio network; more than 2 dozen TV stations and hundreds of privately owned radio stations; high rate of cable TV subscription usage (2007). Internet hosts:11.232 million (2012). Internet users: 13.694 million (2009).
- Transportation: Railways: total: 36,966 km (2011). Highways: total: 231,374 (2004). Waterways: 11,000 km (2012). Ports and harbors: Bahia Blanca, Buenos Aires, La Plata, Punta Colorada, Ushuaia. Airports:1,138 (2013).
- International disputes: Argentina continues to assert its claims to the UK-administered Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), South Georgia, and the South Sandwich Islands in its constitution, forcibly occupying the Falklands in 1982, but in 1995 agreed to no longer seek settlement by force; UK continues to reject Argentine requests for sovereignty talks; territorial claim in Antarctica partially overlaps UK and Chilean claims; uncontested dispute between Brazil and Uruguay over Braziliera/Brasiliera Island in the Quarai/Cuareim River leaves the tripoint with Argentina in question; in 2010, the ICJ ruled in favor of Uruguay's operation of two paper mills on the Uruguay River, which forms the border with Argentina; the two countries formed a joint pollution monitoring regime; the joint boundary commission, established by Chile and Argentina in 2001 has yet to map and demarcate the delimited boundary in the inhospitable Andean Southern Ice Field (Campo de Hielo Sur); contraband smuggling, human trafficking, and illegal narcotic trafficking are problems in the porous areas of the border with Bolivia.
- Geography: Second in South America only to Brazil in size and population, Argentina is a plain, rising from the Atlantic to the Chilean border and the towering Andes peaks. Aconcagua (22,834 ft, 6,960 m) is the highest peak in the world outside Asia. Argentina is also bordered by Bolivia and Paraguay on the north, and by Uruguay and Brazil on the east. The northern area is the swampy and partly wooded Gran Chaco, bordering Bolivia and Paraguay. South of that are the rolling, fertile Pampas, which are rich in agriculture and sheep- and cattle-grazing and support most of the population. Further south is Patagonia, a region of cool, arid steppes with some wooded and fertile sections.