Bolivia

**Bolivia** , officially the **Plurinational State of Bolivia**, is a country in South America.  It is landlocked by Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Peru, and Chile.  Luis Alberto Arce Catacora became its president in November 2020.

As of 2019, the population of Bolivia was between 8,000,000 and 9,000,000.

Bolivia is named after Simón Bolívar. The main languages are Spanish and Quechua, but there are other languages too.

## History

Bolivia used to be a colony of Spain. The silver mines in Bolivia made most of Spain's money, and Spain used the native Bolivians as slaves to work in the mines.

After many wars, Simón Bolívar helped Bolivia to gain its independence in 1825. After this, the country experienced a very divisive 19th century, both politically and racially. There were strong political differences amongst liberals and conservatives in Bolivia following their independence.

Additionally, creoles in the country dominated Bolivian society until late in the 19th century, when Indians and other indigenous communities started to uprise. A notable figure in these indigenous uprisings was Pablo Zárate Willka.

Bolivia used to own some of the Pacific coast, but it lost it in 1879 in the War of the Pacific.

## Geography

Bolivia is 424,135 mi² (1,098,581 km²). This makes Bolivia the world's 28th-largest country (after Ethiopia). It is around the same size as Mauritania.

Bolivia is a landlocked nation, which means none of its borders touch the sea. It is surrounded on all sides by other countries.

The west of Bolivia is on the Andes mountain range. The highest mountain in Bolivia, located near the city of Oruro, is called Nevado de Sajama.

Although the west is very high-altitude with lots of mountains, there are also parts of Bolivia which are very flat and/or very near sea level. There is also a bit of Bolivia covered by the Amazon rainforest, and the highest lake in the world: Lake Titicaca.

The major cities are La Paz, El Alto, Santa Cruz de la Sierra and Cochabamba.  For other places in Bolivia see List of cities in Bolivia.

## Demographics

The population of Bolivia is approximately 10,907,778 people. The ethnic composition of the country is like the following:
- 62% Native American
- 26% Mestizo
- 10% White
- 2% Black

## Economy

Bolivia suffers from poverty. Over 65% of the population lives below the poverty line.

## Divisions

Bolivia is divided into nine departments.  These departments are divided into 112 provinces.  The provinces are divided into 339 municipalities and into native community lands.

<div align=center>
|style="background:#e8e8e8;"|**Department**|style="background:#e8e8e8;"|Abbreviation <small>(ISO)</small>|style="background:#e8e8e8;"|**Population**|style="background:#e8e8e8;"|**Surface (km²)**|style="background:#e8e8e8;"|**Density**|style="background:#e8e8e8;"|**Capital city**|rowspan=11||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|colspan="7"  style="text-align:center; background:#black; color:white; background-color:green;"|**Territorial division of Bolivia**|||||||||||||
|colspan="4" style="text-align:center;"||||||||||||||
|style="background:#efefef; text-align:left;"||style="background:#efefef; text-align:center;"|**BO**|style="background:#efefef; text-align:right;"|**10.027.644**|style="background:#efefef; text-align:right;"|**1.098.581**|style="background:#efefef; text-align:center;"|**9,1**|style="background:#efefef; text-align:left;"|**Sucre**|||
|align=left|Beni|align=center|BO-B|align=right|430.049|align=right|213.564|align=center|1,9|align=left|Trinidad|||
|style="background:#efefef; text-align:left;"|Chuquisaca|style="background:#efefef; text-align:center;"|BO-H|style="background:#efefef; text-align:right;"|631.062|style="background:#efefef; text-align:right;"|51.524|style="background:#efefef; text-align:center;"|11,9|style="background:#efefef; text-align:left;"|Sucre|||
|align=left|Cochabamba|align=center|BO-C|align=right|1.786.040|align=right|55.631|align=center|22,7|align=left|Cochabamba|||
|style="background:#efefef; text-align:left;"|La Paz|style="background:#efefef; text-align:center;"|BO-L|style="background:#efefef; text-align:right;"|2.756.989|style="background:#efefef; text-align:right;"|133.985|style="background:#efefef; text-align:center;"|19,9|style="background:#efefef; text-align:left;"|La Paz|||
|align=left|Oruro|align=center|BO-O|align=right|444.093|align=right|53.558|align=center|8,2|align=left|Oruro|||
|style="background:#efefef; text-align:left;"|Pando|style="background:#efefef; text-align:center;"|BO-N|style="background:#efefef; text-align:right;"|75.335|style="background:#efefef; text-align:right;"|63.827|style="background:#efefef; text-align:center;"|1,1|style="background:#efefef; text-align:left;"|Cobija|||
|align=left|Potosí|align=center|BO-P|align=right|780.392|align=right|118.218|align=center|6,5|align=left|Potosí|||
|style="background:#efefef; text-align:left;"|Santa Cruz|style="background:#efefef; text-align:center;"|BO-S|style="background:#efefef; text-align:right;"|2.626.697|style="background:#efefef; text-align:right;"|370.621|style="background:#efefef; text-align:center;"|7,1|style="background:#efefef; text-align:left;"|Santa Cruz de la Sierra|||
|align=left|Tarija|align=center|BO-T|align=right|496.988|align=right|37.623|align=center|12,5|align=left|Tarija|||
|colspan=7 style="background:#e9e9e9;" align=righth|<small>Source: Demographic Projections 2008, Bolivian National Demographic Institute. The departmental densitiy has been calculated with the population of 2006.</small>|||||||||||||
</div>

## Culture

Bolivian culture has many Inca, Aymara and other native influences in religion, music and clothing. There is a big festival in Oruro, which is called "El carnaval de Oruro". People in Bolivia like playing football, and football, which is often played in the street. Zoos are also very popular, but they do not have much money.

## National symbols

The Cantuta (often spelled kantuta or qantuta) (Cantua buxifolia or Fuchsia buxifolia) is a flower found in the Yungas, and is the national flower of Bolivia along with the _patujú_ (Heliconia rostrata) found in the tropical regions of Bolivia.

## Related pages

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

## References

**Notes**

## Other websites

- Bolivia map

## Infobox (country)

- **conventional long name**: Plurinational State of Bolivia
- **common name**: Bolivia
- **image flag**: Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
- **other symbol**: <div style="padding:0.3em;">
</div>
- **other symbol type**: Dual flag

- **image coat**: Escudo de Bolivia.svg
- **national motto**:

- **national anthem**:

- **image map**: BOL orthographic.svg
- **map width**: 220px
- **image map2**: Bolivia - Location Map (2011) - BOL - UNOCHA.svg
- **capital**: Sucre
La Paz
- **largest city**:

- **languages type**: Official languages
- **ethnic groups year**: 2009
- **religion year**: 2018
- **religion**: 88.9% Christianity
—70.0% Catholic Church in Bolivia, Roman Catholic
—17.2% Protestantism in Bolivia, Protestant
—1.7% Other List of Christian denominations, Christian
9.3% Irreligion in Latin America, No religion
1.2% Other Religion in Bolivia, religions
0.6% No answer
- **demonym**: Bolivians, Bolivian
- **government type**: Unitary state, Unitary Presidential system, presidential Republic, constitutional republic
- **leader title1**: President of Bolivia, President
- **leader name1**: Rodrigo Paz Pereira
- **leader title2**: Vice President of Bolivia, Vice President
- **leader name2**: Edmand Lara
- **legislature**: Plurinational Legislative Assembly
- **upper house**: Chamber of Senators (Bolivia), Chamber of Senators
- **lower house**: Chamber of Deputies (Bolivia), Chamber of Deputies
- **sovereignty type**: Independence
- **established event1**: Recognized
- **established date1**: 21 July 1847
- **established event2**: Admitted to the United Nations
- **established date2**: 14 November 1945
- **established event3**: Current republic
- **established date3**: 7 February 2009
- **area km2**: 1,098,581
- **area rank**: 27th
- **area sq mi**: 424,163
- **percent water**: 1.29
- **population estimate**: 8,014,380 hab
- **population estimate year**: census
- **population estimate rank**: 83rd
- **population density km2**: 10.4
- **population density sq mi**: 26,9
- **population density rank**: 224th
- **gdp ppp**: $89.018 billion
- **gdp ppp rank**: 88th
- **gdp ppp year**: 2019
- **gdp ppp per capita**: $7,790
- **gdp ppp per capita rank**: 123rd
- **gdp nominal**: $40.687 billion
- **gdp nominal rank**: 90th
- **gdp nominal year**: 2019
- **gdp nominal per capita**: $3,823
- **gdp nominal per capita rank**: 117th
- **gini**: 42.2
- **gini year**: 2018
- **gini change**: decrease
- **hdi**: 0.692
- **hdi year**: 2019
- **hdi change**: increase
- **hdi rank**: 107th
- **currency**: Bolivian boliviano, Boliviano
- **currency code**: BOB
- **time zone**: UTC−04:00, BOT
- **utc offset**: −4
- **drives on**: right
- **calling code**: Telephone numbers in Bolivia, +591
- **cctld**: .bo
- **footnote a**: While Sucre is the constitutional capital, La Paz is the seat of government and the executive capital. See #Capital, below.