Zambia

The **Republic of Zambia** is a country in southern Africa. It shares its borders with the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west. It used to be called Northern Rhodesia and it is currently named after the Zambezi River. Zambia is home to one of the seven natural wonders of the world,  Victoria falls. Zambia has at least 72 spoken languages.

The capital of Zambia is Lusaka, which is also the largest city in the country. Hakainde Hichilema is the current president. Its motto is _One Zambia, One Nation_ and its national anthem is _Stand and Sing of Zambia, Proud and Free_. Its official language is English.

## History

Zambia originated from Northern Rhodesia. On 24 October 1964, Zambia became an independent country. The first president was Kenneth Kaunda, who ruled Zambia from 1964 to 1991. Zambia was a one party state. His United National Independence Party was the only legal party, and all other parties were banned.

After protests, democratic elections were held in 1991. Kenneth Kaunda lost the elections and gave away his power in an orderly manner to his successor Frederick Chiluba, a former union leader.

Zambia is now a multi-party democracy. It has had four democratic elections since 1991. The latest presidential election was in 2021, which was won by Hakainde Hichilema against Edgar Lungu.

## Economy

In 1969, Zambia was making a lot of money because of the copper deposits that were mined in Copperbelt province. When copper became cheaper in the 1970s, the economy got worse because people in Zambia were not making as much money from selling copper.  Today, Zambia is a poor country. It does not have many industries. Copper is still its main export. Commercial farming in Zambia is starting to make more money.

## Provinces

Zambia is divided into ten provinces. Each province is divided into several districts. There are 117 districts all together. The provinces are:

- Central
- Copperbelt
- Eastern
- Luapula
- Lusaka
- Muchinga
- Northern
- North-Western
- Southern
- Western

### Cities

The important places in Zambia are:
|colspan="8" align="center" bgcolor="#FFA500"|**Cities in Zambia**|||||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|**Rank**|**City**|**Population**|**Province**|**Image**||||
|**Census 1980**|**Census 1990**|**Census 2000**|**Est. 2007**|||||
|1.|Lusaka|735,830|1,069,353|1,684,703|2,146,522|Lusaka||
|2.|Ndola|297,490|367,228|397,757|467,529|Copperbelt||
|3.|Kitwe|283,962|288,602|363,734|409,865|Copperbelt||
|4.|Kabwe|127,422|154,318|176,758|193,100|Central||
|5.|Chingola|130,872|142,383|147,448|148,469|Copperbelt||
|6.|Mufulira|138,824|123,936|122,336|119,291|Copperbelt||
|7.|Livingstone|61,296|76,875|97,488|113,849|Southern||
|8.|Luanshya|113,422|118,143|115,579|112,029|Copperbelt||
|9.|Kasama|36,269|47,653|74,243|98,613|Northern||
|10.|Chipata|33,627|52,213|73,110|91,416|Eastern||

## Related pages

- List of rivers of Zambia
- Zambia at the Olympics
- Zambia national football team

## References

**Notes**

## Infobox (country)

- **conventional long name**: Republic of Zambia
- **common name**: Zambia
- **image flag**: Flag of Zambia.svg
- **image coat**: Coat of Arms of Zambia.svg
- **image map**: Zambia (orthographic projection).svg
- **national motto**:
"One Zambia, One Nation"
- **national anthem**: "Stand and Sing of Zambia, Proud and Free"
<div style="padding-top:0.5em; text-align:center;"></div>
- **official languages**: English language, English
- **demonym**: Zambian
- **ethnic groups year**: 2010
- **religion year**: 2010
- **capital**: Lusaka
- **largest city**: capital
- **government type**: Unitary state, Unitary Presidential system, presidential Republic, constitutional republic
- **leader title1**: President of Zambia, President
- **leader name1**: Hakainde Hichilema
- **leader title2**: Vice-President of Zambia, Vice President
- **leader name2**: Mutale Nalumango
- **legislature**: National Assembly (Zambia), National Assembly
- **area km2**: 752,618
- **area sq mi**: 290,587
- **area rank**: 38th
- **percent water**: 1
- **population estimate rank**: 65th
- **population census**: 13,092,666
- **population census year**: 2010 Zambian census, 2010
- **population density km2**: 17.2
- **population density sq mi**: 44.5
- **population density rank**: 191st
- **gdp ppp year**: 2019
- **gdp ppp**: $75.857 billion
- **gdp ppp per capita**: $4,148
- **gdp nominal**: $23.946 billion
- **gdp nominal year**: 2019
- **gdp nominal per capita**: $1,307
- **gini year**: 2015
- **gini**: 57.1
- **hdi year**: 2019
- **hdi change**: decrease
- **hdi**: 0.584
- **hdi rank**: 146th
- **sovereignty type**: History of Zambia, Independence
- **sovereignty note**: from the United Kingdom
- **established event1**: North-Western Rhodesia
- **established date1**: 27 June 1890
- **established event2**: Barotziland-North-Western Rhodesia
- **established date2**: 28 November 1899
- **established event3**: North-Eastern Rhodesia
- **established date3**: 29 January 1900
- **established event4**: Northern Rhodesia, Amalgamation of Northern Rhodesia
- **established date4**: 17 August 1911
- **established event5**: Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland
- **established date5**: 1 August 1953
- **established event6**: Zambia Independence Act 1964, Republic of Zambia
- **established date6**: 24 October 1964
- **established event7**: Constitution of Zambia, Current constitution
- **established date7**: 5 January 2016
- **currency**: Zambian kwacha
- **currency code**: ZMW
- **time zone**: Central Africa Time, CAT
- **utc offset**: +2
- **drives on**: Right- and left-hand traffic, left
- **calling code**: +260
- **cctld**: .zm
- **date start**: 1964