Dominican republic
By Celeste Johnson
Size of country?
- The Dominican Republic is a little more than twice the size of New hampshire and shares an island with Haiti.
- Because the DR is fairly small , it isn't that powerful when comparing size to other countries.
- In all, the Dominican republic is 48,670 sq km and has a ranking of 132 in size compared to the rest of the world.
Armed forces
- The Dominican Republic's military includes an Army, a Navy, and an Air Force.
- Women and men age 17-21 are able to volunteer for military service.
- They rank 121st In military compared to the US who ranks 9t
- The Dominican Republic spends 0.61% of their GDP on military (as of 2012)
Population
- There are around 10,349,741 people living in the Dominican Republic
- 73% are Mixed, 16% of the population is White, and 11% of the population is black.
- 28% of the Dominican Republics population is 0-14 years old, 18.5% is 15-24, 39.3% is age 25-54, 7% of the population is 55-64, and 6.9% is 65 years of age or old.
- When compared to the rest of the world, the Dominican Republic is ranked number 93 in population growth rate.
Physical Features
- The climate in the DR is tropical with seasonal change in temperature and rainfall.
- The geography of the DR includes rough mountains with fertile valleys.
- The highest point in the Dominican republic is Pico Duarte, reaching a peak of 3,175m, while the lowest point is Lago Enriquillo, with a depth of -46 m
- Natural resources in the Dominican republic include nickel, Bauxite, gold, and silver.
- The DR is located in a hurricane belt, this causes the country to be subjected to severe storms from June to October.
Education
- The education in the DR is free but children don't have to attend
- Like our education system, the Dominican republics education is divided into four levels Preschool, primary, secondary, and higher education.
- The school year begins in mid August and classes are Monday to Friday. The full year is made up of two terms which are separated by Christmas holidays and summer break which lasts 8 weeks.
- After the student completes the main levels of education, he/she can go to one of the many universities in the Dominican republic our anywhere else for that matter.
Economy
- The Dominican republic is a very big exporter of sugar, tobacco, and coffee and is very dependent on the US.
- The DR has a very big income inequality, with the poorest of the population getting less than 1/5 of the GDP and the richest getting just about 40%.
- The income tax rate is 25%, corporate tax rate is 29%. Some other taxes is the value added tax, estate tax, and net wealth tax.
- Pressure on public finances has been caused by expenditures that have been 16% of the GDP, this makes the public debt about 34% of the GDO.