Nicaragua in brief
AREA: 50,193 square miles (about the size of Arkansas).
LAND: 7% arable, 7% prairie and pasture, 50% forest, 36% urban, other.
POPULATION: 2,465,000 (January 1981).
ETHNIC DIVISIONS: mestizo, 69%; white, 17%; black, 9%; Indian, 5%.
RELIGION: Roman Catholic, 95%.
LANGUAGE: Spanish. English-speaking minority on east coast.
LITERACY: 88%.
INCOME: $540 per capita (1979).
MAJOR INDUSTRIES: food processing, chemicals, metal products, textiles, clothing, agriculture (cotton, coffee, sugar cane, rice, corn beans, cattle).
Source: Central Intelligence Agency and Nicaraguan government
