Officially called the Republic of South Africa, South Africa is located at the southern tip of Africa. With an area of 1,219,912 square kilometers (471,008 square miles), South Africa is just under twice the size of Texas. A dry plateau fills much of the nation's interior, while bands of forest and coastal plains dominate along the South African coasts. Despite the generally arid climate, however, conditions along the southwest coast of South Africa most closely resemble those of California or the Mediterranean.

As of 2003, an estimated 42,768,678 people lived in South Africa, with a median age of twenty-five. Life expectancy at birth was about the same for both male and female at forty-seven years. This very low life expectancy in part resulted from the large numbers of people infected with HIV or AIDS. In 2001 an estimated 20.1 percent of the population was infected, and the number in subsequent years was...