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