This huge country occupies most of the southern part of South America, and stretches a total of 2,300 miles from Bolivia in the north to near Cape Horn far away to the south. Just smaller than India and the eighth largest country in the world, Argentina totals 1,080,000 square miles. To the west, bordering the length of Chile are the Andes Mountains and to the east of them, down to the Atlantic are the great plains and pampas.
Climate ranges from sub-tropical to cold temperate.
Population and Economy - Out of a 1980 population of 27,900,000, nearly 10 million live in and around the seaport capital of Buenos Aires on the River Plate estuary. The great majority of the people are of European origin, mainly from Spain and Italy and the native Indian population is small. Language is Spanish, the main religion Roman Catholic and much of the country's culture is European Mediterranean in character. Agriculture and livestock have long been an important part of the country's economy, and the meat-packing and food processing industries reflect this. Apart from oil and mineral production, there has been a considerable growth in recent years in the textile, plastics, machine tool, car and steel product industries.