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Where is Burkina Faso?
About Burkina Faso
The Land
The People
Life and Death
Health, Energy and the Environment
Education and Work
Travel, Communication and the Media

Burkina Faso is an above average size country in western Africa.

Burkina Faso is a landlocked country with no coastal borders.

The land is mostly flat with hills in the west and south east.

The geographical coordinates for the centre of Burkina Faso, also known as lines of latitude and longitude, are:-
Latitude - 13 00N
Longitude - 2 00W

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Check the weather in Ouagadougou now.

This is the time in Ouagadougou now

The Burkinabe flag is two equal horizontal stripes of red, at the top, and green with a yellow five-pointed star in the centre. Red recalls the country's struggle for independence, green is for hope and abundance, and yellow represents the country's mineral wealth.

The capital of Burkina Faso is Ouagadougou.

Burkina Faso is a presidential republic with a president as head of state and head of the government.

In elections everyone over the age of 18 can vote.

The currency in Burkina Faso is the African franc.

French is the official language.

Hear the National Anthem


These are the anthem words

The words ×

These are the words to the Burkinabe National Anthem called Anthem of the Victory. It was adopted in 1984. This is a translation of the words to the first two of four verses.
If anthem fails to play click here

Against the humiliating bondage of a thousand years
Rapacity came from afar to subjugate them for a hundred years.
Against the cynical malice in the shape
Of neo-colonialism and its petty local servants.
Many gave in and certain others resisted.
But the frustrations, the successes, the sweat, the blood
Have fortified our courageous people and fertilized its heroic struggle. 

Chorus
And one single night has drawn together the history of an entire people,
And one single night has launched its triumphal march towards the horizon of good fortune.
One single night has brought together our people with all the peoples of the World,
In the acquisition of liberty and progress, motherland or death, we shall conquer.

Nourished in the lively source of the Revolution,
The volunteers for liberty and peace
With their nocturnal and beneficial energies of the 4 of August
Had not only hand arms, but also and above all
The flame in their hearts lawfully to free
Faso forever from the fetters of those who
Here and there were polluting the sacred soul of independence and sovereignty. 

Chorus

We have already written our own history of England but are asking schools in Burkina Faso to provide us with a detailed history of their own country. Check how here.


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The total land area of Burkina Faso is 273,800 sq kms which is the 29th largest in Africa.

Burkina Faso has lakes, rivers and canals which total 400 sq kms.

Burkina Faso has boundaries with 6 countries

• Mali 1,325 kms
• Niger 622 kms
• Ghana 602 kms
• Cote d'Ivoire 545 kms
• Benin 386 kms
• Togo 131 kms

Burkina Faso has no coastline.

The highest point in Burkina Faso is Tena Kourou at 749 metres.

The pie chart below shows how the land is split between agricultural land (crops and pastures), forests and other, which can be towns, villages, desert or frozen waste called tundra.

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The total population of Burkina Faso is 19.74 million people, making it the 25th largest country in Africa by population.

Of this number 10.12 million are females and 9.62 million are males.

A person from Burkina Faso is called a Burkinabe.

To be a citizen of Burkina Faso, one of your parents must be a citizen of Burkina Faso. It is not sufficient to be born in Burkina Faso. You have to live in Burkina Faso for 10 years before you can begin to apply for citizenship.

The largest five cities in Burkina Faso, by population are:-

• Ouagadougou 1,086,505 people
• Bobo-Dioulasso 360,106
• Koudougou 87,347
• Ouahigouya 61,096
• Banfora 60,288

For each country we will give you a diagram showing the population density. This is the average number of people for each square kilometre. Each little Owlbut is 1 person and the big yellow rectangle is 1 sq km. After a while you can compare countries and see which ones are the most crowded. Remember it is only an average as more people live closer together in towns and cities than in villages out in the country.



29.4% of the people live in cities or towns.

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The birth rate in Burkina Faso is 36.9 births per 1,000 of population

The death rate in Burkina Faso is 8.7 deaths per 1,000 people.

Check this against the birth rate. If the death rate is higher than the birth rate then the population will decrease unless immigrants arrive in the country.

There are 50.0 deaths of girls under 1 year per 1,000 of births and 59.2 deaths of boys.

The median age for females is 18.2 and for males is 16.6. The median age is that age which divides the population exactly in half so there are the same number of people above the median age as below it.

The average age of a woman when she has her first child is 19.4.

The elderly dependency ratio is 4.6. This is the number of elderly people (ages 65+) per 100 people of working age (ages 15-64).

The potential support ratio is 21.6. This is the number of working-age people (ages 15-64) per one elderly person (ages 65+). As a population ages, the potential support ratio tends to fall, meaning there are fewer potential workers to support the elderly.

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Burkina Faso spends 5.0% of its total income on health care.

There are 0.06 doctors per 1,000 people.

There are 0.4 hospital beds per 1,000 people.

5.6% of the population are estimated as obese.

97.5% of the urban population and 75.8% of the rural population have drinking water that is either piped into their home or they have access to a public tap, a protected borehole, well, spring or protected rainwater collection facility.

50.4% of the urban population and 6.7% of the rural population have access to a flushing toilet that is connected to a sewer, a pit latrine (that is a permanent hole in the ground that is looked after) or a composting toilet.

Burkina Faso releases 1.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels in the process of producing and consuming energy. This puts it as the 34th highest in Africa.

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Burkina Faso spends 4.2% of its total income on education.

Children usually start school at age 6 in Burkina Faso. Primary education is for six years until age 12 and secondary education must continue till 16 but can go on to 18/19. This may be followed by further education at a university or college.

Generally the school year consists of 4 terms and starts in the last week of August and finishes in the middle of June. There is usually a 1 week break at the end of October, 2 weeks at Christmas and a week at the end of March.

29.3% of females and 43% of males are able to read and write by the age of 15.

8.7% of all people aged between 16 and 24 are not in work. Among females 12.6% are unemployed while with males 5.3% can't find work.

The total number of people available for work in Burkina Faso is 8.50 million.

They work in the following sectors.

• Agriculture includes farming, fishing and forestry work
• Industry includes mining, manufacturing, construction and energy workers
• Services is everything else

77.0% of the workforce are unemployed.

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There are 2 paved airports in Burkina Faso, which is the 44th highest number in Africa.


There are 622 kilometres of railways in Burkina Faso, the 30th longest in Africa.


There are 15,272 kilometres of roads in Burkina Faso, which means Burkina Faso is in 32nd place for the most kilometres of roads in Africa.

There are 3 major national newspapers in Burkina Faso.

There are 17.95 million mobile phone users.

Less than 1% of the people have a fixed landline.



2.72 million people have access to the internet at home via any device (computer or mobile).

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