POPULATION 37,812,817
ROMAN CATHOLIC 88.0 percent
PROTESTANT 7.0 percent
MUSLIM 2.0 percent
JEWISH 1.5 percent
OTHER OR NONAFFILIATED 1.5 percent

Country Overview

Introduction

The Argentine Republic is, by area, the eighth largest country in the world. Extending almost 2,400 miles from north to south, with the Andes Mountains forming its western border, the country occupies most of South America's southern cone, an area of widely varying climate and geography. Argentina is bordered by Bolivia and Paraguay to the north; Brazil, Uruguay, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east; and Chile to the south and west.

Demographically Argentina is one of the most "European" of the Latin American nations, its population made up mostly of people of Spanish, Italian, and German ancestry. At the time of European settlement, the indigenous population was relatively small, and it remains only a tiny fraction of the total population. Its ethnic composition has given Argentina a strong Catholic flavor. Eighty-eight...