Burkina Faso shares a border with Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Niger, and Togo. It is mostly flat to dissected, undulating plains, with hills in the west and southwest.
People who live in Burkina Faso are called Burkinabe, which is also an adjective used to describe something from this country. As of July 2012, there are 17,275,115 people in Burkina Faso. The ethnic groups that reside in Burkina Faso are mostly Mossi (over 40%) with smaller groups of Gurunsi, Senufo, Lobi, Bobo, Mande, and Fulani. Though French is the official language of Burkina Faso, native African languages belonging to Sudanic family is also spoken by 90% of the population. Muslims make up approximately 60.5% of the population, while Catholics (19%), animist (15.3%), and Protestants (4.2%) make up the rest.
The capital of Burkina Faso is Ouagadougou, and the country is made up of 13 regions. Though Burkina Faso gained independence from France on August 5, 1960, a constitution was not adopted until June 11, 1991. The constitution can be found through Constitution Finder. The current president is President Blaise Compaore. Information about the leaders of Burkina Faso's government can be found here. The currency is the Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (abbreviated XOF), which stands at 471.87 XOF per USD as of 2011.
All of this information was gathered from the CIA World Factbook. For more information, check out these resources...
Burkina Faso, CIA World Factbook
Background Notes: Burkina Faso, U.S. Department of State
2011 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Burkina Faso, U.S. Department of State.
You can also check out the Country Studies tab on our Fed Docs libguide here for more resources on all of the countries.
Sonnet Ireland
Head of Federal Documents
Reference & Instruction Librarian
Subject Specialist: Legal Research
Planning and Urban Studies
Political Science
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