Country information

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Area: Approximately 147,000 sq km, stretching 800km from east to west and from 90 to 230km north to south.
Population: An estimated 28.2 million (July 2006 est.). Annual rate of growth of 2.5%.
Capital City: Kathmandu. Population of about 800,000 in the city itself.
Believed to be approximately 1.5m in the fertile Kathmandu valley.
Peoples: Tribal groups include Gurung, Limbu, Newar, Rai, Sherpa, Tamang and Tharu with diverse smaller groups. Major caste groups are the Brahmans and Chhetris. Large numbers of Indians and some Tibetans make their home in the country.
Language(s): Nepali 58% (official language), Newari 3%, mainly in Kathmandu. Tibetan languages (20%) mainly in the hill areas and Indian languages (20%) mainly in the Terai areas bordering India. Nepal has over 30 Languages and dozens of dialects.
Religion(s): Officially 90% Hindu, 8% Buddhist and 2% Islamic – but these figures are thought misleading. Hinduism and Buddhism overlap considerably in Nepal. Other estimates also suggest that there are some 400,000 Christians in the country.
Currency: Nepalese Rupee (NPR)
Major political parties: Nepali Congress Party (Girija Prasad Koirala, Party president), Nepali Congress Party Democratic (Sher Bahadur Deuba, Party president), Communist Party of Nepal/United Marxist-Leninist or CPN/UML (Party General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal) National Democratic Party or NDP (also called Rastriya Prajatantra Party or RPP), now split into RPP (Thapa) and RPP (Rana). Nepal Sadbhavana (Goodwill) Party or NSP, also split into factions Nepal Sadbhavana Party (Anandi Devi) and Nepal Workers and Peasants Party or NWPP, CPN(Maoists) (Chairman, Prachanda - Pushpa Kamal Dahal).

Government: Constitutionally, Nepal is a parliamentary democracy. A multi-party Parliament was reinstated following the King's handover of executive powers to the political parties on 24 April 2006. An interim Parliament was formed on 15 January 2007. Subsequently an interim government including the CPN(Maoists) was formed on 1 April 2007.
Head of State: Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. The King no longer holds any executive powers or ceremonial functions.
Prime Minister: Gigija Prasad Koirala. Sworn into office on 30 April 2006.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs: Sahana Pradhan (CPN - UML Party)
Membership of international groupings/organisations: United Nations, South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC), Council of Democracies.

DID YOU KNOW?

• The national greeting is 'Namaste' which means 'I celebrate the divinity in you'.
• Sons are expected to care for their mothers in old age. There is a high respect for elders in general.
• The Kumari Devi is revered by both Hindus and Buddhists in Nepal as a 'living Goddess'.
• Nepal is said to be the home of the Abominable Snowman, or Yeti – a large, hairy creature that lives in the Himalayan mountains.

HEALTH

Life expectancy at birth is an average of 59.7 years (Population Census 2001).

In December 2005, nearly 3,000 cases of Japanese encephalitis were reported, of which more than 300 people died. The most affected areas were in the western, mid-western and far-western regions of Nepal. For further details of areas affected please see the World Health Organisation Regional Office for South East Asia website at: Japanese Encephalitis.

HIV/AIDS

Nepal is a country with a concentrated HIV epidemic, with HIV infection occurring primarily in certain subgroups: i.e. 16% among female sex workers, 68% among injecting drug users, and between 4-10% among labour migrants returning from India. Limited data indicates that HIV prevalence is currently around 0.5% in the general population.

According to recent reports there are approximately 61,000 people living with HIV in Nepal. Furthermore, the National Centre for AIDS and STD Control (NCASC) stated in July 2004 that there were a total of 4,049 AIDS cases reported, of which the male to female ration was approx. 3:1. Most people living with HIV/AIDS do not know they are infected - stigma and discrimination are barriers to people seeking testing and disclosure.

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