Preamble – The Republic of The Gambia

The Gambia is located in Western Africa, bordering the Atlantic Ocean and completely surrounded by Senegal. The country is 11,295 sq km in area (CIA World Factbook 2012), making it the smallest country in the continent of Africa; it is slightly less than twice the size of Delaware. The Gambia has a wide variety of ethnic groups with minimal inter-tribal friction. They are 99% African (2012), with the largest ethnic group being the Mandinka tribe, which consists of 42% of all tribes.

Mandinka itself has its own language along with other minority languages; however English is the official language of the country. According to the CIA World Factbook, the updated population count is just over 1.7 million persons. It ranks as the 149^th most populous country in the world (2012). Population growth rate is at 1.68% per year; non Gambians make up 12% of the total population (State.gov, 2012). 90% of the population is Muslim, while the minorities consists of Christians or indigenous beliefs. The age structure in The Gambia is a progressive younger generation, with 40% 0-14 years of age, 57% 15-64 and the remaining 3% 65 years and older (CIA 2012). The median age of individuals is 19 years old. The young population remains highly uneducated, with the mean years of education being 2.8 (HDI 2011). An estimated 58% of the total population is considered urban, with a growing 3.7% annual rate of change projected between the years 2011-2015 (2012). In terms with the Human Development Index, The Gambia ranks 168^th overall, classifying the country as low human development. 

References

Central Intelligence Agency (2012). The world Factbook page of The Gambia, Section: People. In 2012 World Factbook (Online database). Retrieved September 25 2013, from the World Wide Web: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ga.html#

Department of State. Bureau of African Affairs. (2011). The gambia country report. Retrieved from website: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5459.htm

Human development indix and its components. HDI (2011) Retrieved from http://hdr.undp.org/en/mdei/HDR_2011_ENTable1.pdf