Location: South America
Status: UN Country
Capital City: Bogotá
Main Cities: Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla, Bucaramanga
Population: 34,545,000
Area: 1,138,910 km2
Currency: 1 Colombian peso = 100 centavos
Languages: Spanish, over 100 Indian dialects
Religions: Roman Catholic
More about Colombia: a republic in NW South America: inhabited by Chibchas and other Indians before Spanish colonization in the 16th century; independence won by Bolívar in 1819; became the Republic of Colombia in 1886; violence and unrest have been endemic since the 1970s. It consists chiefly of a hot swampy coastal plain, separated by ranges of the Andes from the pampas and the equatorial forests of the Amazon basin in the east. Language: Spanish. Religion: Roman Catholic majority. Currency: peso. Capital: Bogotá. Pop.: 44 914 000 (2004 est.). Area: 1 138 908 sq. km (439 735 sq. miles)