In the early 1800s, multiple political entities in what is now Botswana were destabilized or destroyed by a series of conflicts and population movements in southern Africa. By the end of this period, the Tswana ethnic group, who also live across the border in South Africa, had become the most prominent group in the area. In 1852, Tswana forces halted the expansion of white Afrikaner settlers who were seeking to expand their territory northwards into what is now Botswana. In 1885, Great Britain claimed territory that roughly corresponds with modern day Botswana as a protectorate called Bechuanaland. Upon independence in 1966, the British protectorate of Bechuanaland adopted the new name of Botswana, which means land of the Tswana. More than five decades of uninterrupted civilian leadership, progressive social policies, and significant capital investment have created an enduring democracy and upper-middle-income economy. The ruling Botswana Democratic Party has won every national election since independence; President Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe MASISI assumed the presidency in 2018 following the retirement of former President Ian KHAMA due to constitutional term limits. MASISI won his first election as president in 2019, and he is Botswana’s fifth president since independence. Mineral extraction, principally diamond mining, dominates economic activity, though tourism is a growing sector due to the country’s conservation practices and extensive nature preserves. Botswana has one of the world’s highest rates of HIV/AIDS infection but also one of Africa’s most progressive and comprehensive programs for dealing with the disease.
land: 566,730 sq km
water: 15,000 sq km
border countries (4): Namibia 1,544 km; South Africa 1,969 km; Zambia 0.15 km; Zimbabwe 834 km
lowest point: junction of the Limpopo and Shashe Rivers 513 m
mean elevation: 1,013 m
arable land: 0.6% (2018 est.)
permanent crops: 0% (2018 est.)
permanent pasture: 45.2% (2018 est.)
forest: 19.8% (2018 est.)
other: 34.4% (2018 est.)
2,417,596 (2023 est.)
noun: Motswana (singular), Batswana (plural)
adjective: Motswana (singular), Batswana (plural)
Tswana (or Setswana) 79%, Kalanga 11%, Basarwa 3%, other, including Kgalagadi and people of European ancestry 7%
Setswana 77.3%, Sekalanga 7.4%, Shekgalagadi 3.4%, English (official) 2.8%, Zezuru/Shona 2%, Sesarwa 1.7%, Sembukushu 1.6%, Ndebele 1%, other 2.8% (2011 est.)
Christian 79.1%, Badimo 4.1%, other 1.4% (includes Baha’i, Hindu, Muslim, Rastafarian), none 15.2%, unspecified 0.3% (2011 est.)
Botswana has experienced one of the most rapid declines in fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa. The total fertility rate fell from more than 5 children per woman in the mid 1980s to approximately 2.4 in 2013, and remains at that level in 2022. The fertility reduction has been attributed to a host of factors, including higher educational attainment among women, greater participation of women in the workforce, increased contraceptive use, later first births, and a strong national family planning program. Botswana was making significant progress in several health indicators, including life expectancy and infant and child mortality rates, until being devastated by the HIV/AIDs epidemic in the 1990s.In 2021, Botswana had one of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in the world at close to 20%, however comprehensive and effective treatment programs have reduced HIV/AIDS-related deaths. The combination of declining fertility and increasing mortality rates because of HIV/AIDS is slowing the population aging process, with a narrowing of the youngest age groups and little expansion of the oldest age groups. Nevertheless, having the bulk of its population (about 60% as of 2022) of working age will only yield economic benefits if the labor force is healthy, educated, and productively employed.Batswana have been working as contract miners in South Africa since the 19th century. Although Botswana’s economy improved shortly after independence in 1966 with the discovery of diamonds and other minerals, its lingering high poverty rate and lack of job opportunities continued to push workers to seek mining work in southern African countries. In the early 1970s, about a third of Botswana’s male labor force worked in South Africa (lesser numbers went to Namibia and Zimbabwe). Not until the 1980s and 1990s, when South African mining companies had reduced their recruitment of foreign workers and Botswana’s economic prospects had improved, were Batswana increasingly able to find job opportunities at home.Most Batswana prefer life in their home country and choose cross-border migration on a temporary basis only for work, shopping, visiting family, or tourism. Since the 1970s, Botswana has pursued an open migration policy enabling it to recruit thousands of foreign workers to fill skilled labor shortages. In the late 1990s, Botswana’s prosperity and political stability attracted not only skilled workers but small numbers of refugees from neighboring Angola, Namibia, and Zimbabwe.
0-14 years: 29.17% (male 355,951/female 349,283)
15-64 years: 64.88% (male 745,327/female 823,267)
65 years and over: 5.95% (2023 est.) (male 57,876/female 85,892)
total dependency ratio: 57.5
youth dependency ratio: 51.8
elderly dependency ratio: 5.7
potential support ratio: 13.8 (2021 est.)
total: 26.8 years (2023 est.)
male: 25.6 years
female: 27.9 years
1.37% (2023 est.)
20 births/1,000 population (2023 est.)
9 deaths/1,000 population (2023 est.)
2.8 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2023 est.)
the population is primarily concentrated in the east with a focus in and around the captial of Gaborone, and the far central-eastern city of Francistown; population density remains low in other areas in the country, especially in the Kalahari to the west as shown in this
urban population: 72.9% of total population (2023)
rate of urbanization: 2.47% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)
269,000 GABORONE (capital) (2018)
at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
0-14 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.91 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.67 male(s)/female
total population: 0.92 male(s)/female (2023 est.)
186 deaths/100,000 live births (2020 est.)
total: 24.4 deaths/1,000 live births (2023 est.)
male: 26.7 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 22 deaths/1,000 live births
total population: 66 years (2023 est.)
male: 64 years
female: 68.2 years
2.37 children born/woman (2023 est.)
1.17 (2023 est.)
67.4% (2017)
improved: urban: 98.1% of population
rural: 96.9% of population
total: 99.4% of population
unimproved: urban: 0.2% of population
rural: 3.1% of population
total: 0.6% of population (2020 est.)
6.2% of GDP (2020)
0.38 physicians/1,000 population (2018)
1.8 beds/1,000 population
improved: urban: 94.9% of population
rural: 63% of population
total: 85.6% of population
unimproved: urban: 5.1% of population
rural: 37% of population
total: 14.4% of population (2020 est.)
degree of risk: high (2023)
food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
vectorborne diseases: malaria
note: on 31 August 2023, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Travel Alert for polio in Africa; Botswana is currently considered a high risk to travelers for circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV); vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) is a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in oral polio vaccine (OPV) and that has changed over time and behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus; this means it can be spread more easily to people who are unvaccinated against polio and who come in contact with the stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an “infected” person who received oral polio vaccine; the CDC recommends that before any international travel, anyone unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated, or with an unknown polio vaccination status should complete the routine polio vaccine series; before travel to any high-risk destination, the CDC recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine
18.9% (2016)
total: 5.98 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
beer: 2.93 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
wine: 0.46 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
spirits: 0.96 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
other alcohols: 1.64 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
total: 19.4% (2020 est.)
male: 30.4% (2020 est.)
female: 8.3% (2020 est.)
NA
45% (2023 est.)
8.7% of GDP (2020 est.)
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 88.5%
male: 88%
female: 88.9% (2015)
total: 12 years
male: 12 years
female: 12 years (2021)
overgrazing; desertification; limited freshwater resources; air pollution
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
semiarid; warm winters and hot summers
agricultural land: 45.8% (2018 est.)
arable land: 0.6% (2018 est.)
permanent crops: 0% (2018 est.)
permanent pasture: 45.2% (2018 est.)
forest: 19.8% (2018 est.)
other: 34.4% (2018 est.)
urban population: 72.9% of total population (2023)
rate of urbanization: 2.47% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)
0.23% of GDP (2018 est.)
0.45% of GDP (2018 est.)
particulate matter emissions: 12.82 micrograms per cubic meter (2019 est.)
carbon dioxide emissions: 6.34 megatons (2016 est.)
methane emissions: 5.73 megatons (2020 est.)
municipal solid waste generated annually: 210,854 tons (2010 est.)
municipal solid waste recycled annually: 2,109 tons (2005 est.)
percent of municipal solid waste recycled: 1% (2005 est.)
Zambezi (shared with Zambia [s]), Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique [m]) - 2,740 km; Limpopo (shared with South Africa [s], Zimbabwe, and Mozambique [m]) - 1,800 km; Okavango river mouth (shared with Angola [s], and Namibia) - 1,600 km
note – [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth
Atlantic Ocean drainage: Orange (941,351 sq km)
Indian Ocean drainage: Zambezi (1,332,412 sq km)
Internal (endorheic basin) drainage: Okavango Basin (863,866 sq km)
Lower Kalahari-Stampriet Basin, Upper Kalahari-Cuvelai-Upper Zambezi Basin
municipal: 110 million cubic meters (2020 est.)
industrial: 30 million cubic meters (2020 est.)
agricultural: 80 million cubic meters (2020 est.)
12.24 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)
good economic governance and financial management; diamond-driven growth model declining; rapid poverty reductions; high unemployment, particularly among youth; COVID-19 sharply contracted the economy and recovery is slow; public sector wages have posed fiscal challenges
$38.415 billion (2021 est.)
$34.493 billion (2020 est.)
$37.79 billion (2019 est.)
note: data are in 2017 dollars
11.37% (2021 est.)
-8.73% (2020 est.)
3.03% (2019 est.)
$14,800 (2021 est.)
$13,500 (2020 est.)
$15,100 (2019 est.)
note: data are in 2017 dollars
$18.335 billion (2019 est.)
7.24% (2021 est.)
1.89% (2020 est.)
2.77% (2019 est.)
Moody’s rating: A2 (2020)
Standard & Poors rating: BBB+ (2020)
note: The year refers to the year in which the current credit rating was first obtained.
agriculture: 1.8% (2017 est.)
industry: 27.5% (2017 est.)
services: 70.6% (2017 est.)comparison rankings:
household consumption: 48.5% (2017 est.)
government consumption: 18.4% (2017 est.)
investment in fixed capital: 29% (2017 est.)
investment in inventories: -1.8% (2017 est.)
exports of goods and services: 39.8% (2017 est.)
imports of goods and services: -33.9% (2017 est.)
milk, roots/tubers, vegetables, sorghum, beef, game meat, watermelons, cabbages, goat milk, onions
diamonds, copper, nickel, salt, soda ash, potash, coal, iron ore, silver; beef processing; textiles
19.38% (2021 est.)
1.05 million (2021 est.)
24.72% (2021 est.)
24.93% (2020 est.)
22.61% (2019 est.)
total: 41.2% (2021 est.)
male: 39.5%
female: 43.3%
19.3% (2009 est.)
53.3 (2015 est.)
lowest 10%: NA
highest 10%: NA
revenues: $3.828 billion (2020 est.)
expenditures: $6.006 billion (2020 est.)
-1% (of GDP) (2017 est.)
19.66% of GDP (2020 est.)
16.22% of GDP (2019 est.)
15.23% of GDP (2018 est.)
22.32% (of GDP) (2020 est.)
1 April - 31 March
-$122.877 million (2021 est.)
-$1.292 billion (2020 est.)
-$1.155 billion (2019 est.)
$7.931 billion (2021 est.)
$4.81 billion (2020 est.)
$6.229 billion (2019 est.)
note: Data are in current year dollars and do not include illicit exports or re-exports.
India 21%, Belgium 19%, United Arab Emirates 19%, South Africa 9%, Israel 7%, Hong Kong 6%, Singapore 5% (2019)
diamonds, insulated wiring, copper, beef, gold (2021)
$9.277 billion (2021 est.) note: data are in current year dollars
$7.413 billion (2020 est.) note: data are in current year dollars
$7.696 billion (2019 est.)
South Africa 58%, Namibia 9%, Canada 7% (2019)
diamonds, refined petroleum, cars, delivery trucks, electricity (2019)
$4.802 billion (31 December 2021 est.)
$4.941 billion (31 December 2020 est.)
$6.17 billion (31 December 2019 est.)
$2.187 billion (31 December 2017 est.)
$2.421 billion (31 December 2016 est.)
pulas (BWP) per US dollar -
Exchange rates:
11.087 (2021 est.)
11.456 (2020 est.)
10.756 (2019 est.)
10.2 (2018 est.)
10.347 (2017 est.)
electrification - total population: 73.7% (2021)
electrification - urban areas: 93% (2021)
electrification - rural areas: 24.9% (2021)
installed generating capacity: 766,000 kW (2020 est.)
consumption: 3,515,900,000 kWh (2019 est.)
exports: 0 kWh (2019 est.)
imports: 1.101 billion kWh (2019 est.)
transmission/distribution losses: 631 million kWh (2019 est.)comparison rankings:
fossil fuels: 99.8% of total installed capacity (2020 est.)
nuclear: 0% of total installed capacity (2020 est.)
solar: 0.2% of total installed capacity (2020 est.)
wind: 0% of total installed capacity (2020 est.)
hydroelectricity: 0% of total installed capacity (2020 est.)
tide and wave: 0% of total installed capacity (2020 est.)
geothermal: 0% of total installed capacity (2020 est.)
biomass and waste: 0% of total installed capacity (2020 est.)
production: 1.876 million metric tons (2020 est.)
consumption: 1.416 million metric tons (2020 est.)
exports: 497,000 metric tons (2020 est.)
imports: 0 metric tons (2020 est.)
proven reserves: 1.66 billion metric tons (2019 est.)
total petroleum production: 0 bbl/day (2021 est.)
refined petroleum consumption: 21,700 bbl/day (2019 est.)
crude oil and lease condensate exports: 0 bbl/day (2018 est.)
crude oil and lease condensate imports: 0 bbl/day (2018 est.)
crude oil estimated reserves: 0 barrels (2021 est.)
0 bbl/day (2015 est.)
0 bbl/day (2015 est.)
21,090 bbl/day (2015 est.)
production: 0 cubic meters (2021 est.)
consumption: 0 cubic meters (2021 est.)
exports: 0 cubic meters (2021 est.)
imports: 0 cubic meters (2021 est.)
proven reserves: 0 cubic meters (2021 est.)
5.965 million metric tonnes of CO2 (2019 est.)
from coal and metallurgical coke: 2.922 million metric tonnes of CO2 (2019 est.)
from petroleum and other liquids: 3.042 million metric tonnes of CO2 (2019 est.)
from consumed natural gas: 0 metric tonnes of CO2 (2019 est.)
34.095 million Btu/person (2019 est.)
number of registered air carriers: 1 (2020)
inventory of registered aircraft operated by air carriers: 6
annual passenger traffic on registered air carriers: 253,417 (2018)
annual freight traffic on registered air carriers: 110,000 (2018) mt-km
A2
74 (2021)
10
note: paved runways have a concrete or asphalt surface but not all have facilities for refueling, maintenance, or air traffic control; the length of a runway required for aircraft to safely operate depends on a number of factors including the type of aircraft, the takeoff weight (including passengers, cargo, and fuel), engine types, flap settings, landing speed, elevation of the airport, and average maximum daily air temperature; paved runways can reach a length of 5,000 m (16,000 ft.), but the “typical” length of a commercial airline runway is between 2,500-4,000 m (8,000-13,000 ft.)
64
note: unpaved runways have a surface composition such as grass or packed earth and are most suited to the operation of light aircraft; unpaved runways are usually short, often less than 1,000 m (3,280 ft.) in length; airports with unpaved runways often lack facilities for refueling, maintenance, or air traffic control
total: 888 km (2014)
narrow gauge: 888 km (2014) 1.067-m gauge
total: 31,747 km (2017)
paved: 9,810 km (2017)
unpaved: 21,937 km (2017)
manyapis