Area: 226,000 square miles
Capital: Gaborone
Languages: English (official), Setswana (Tswana)
Ethnicity: 79% Tswana (or Setswana), 11% Kalanga, 3% Basarwa, 7% Other, including Kgalagadi and white.
Location: Botswana is bordered by Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Namibia.
Geography: Botswana is a landlocked republic in southern Africa covering an area slightly smaller than France. Bordering nations include Zimbabwe in the northeast, South Africa in the south and southeast, and Namibia to the north and west. The country is geologically a vast sandy tableland with an average elevation of about 3,300 feet (1,000 meters). Large tracts of land in the central south and west (about two-thirds of the country) are covered by the Kalahari Desert. In the north-central portion of Botswana lie the wetlands of the Okavango Delta, the world’s largest inland delta, and the salt pans of the Makgadikgadi area.
Population: (July 2008 estimate): 1,842,232
Time Zone: Botswana is 7 hours ahead of Eastern Time. When it is noon in New York, it is 7:00pm in Botswana.
Religions: Christian 71.6%, Badimo 6%, other 1.4%, unspecified 0.4%, none 20.6%