Population: 1,711,072 (July 1989), growth rate 2.7% (1989)

Birth rate: 37 births/1,000 population (1989)

Death rate: 10 deaths/1,000 population (1989)

Net migration rate: NEGL migrants/1,000 population (1989)

Infant mortality rate: 81 deaths/1,000 live births (1989)

Life expectancy at birth: 59 years male, 62 years female (1989)

Total fertility rate: 5.0 children born/woman (1989)

Nationality: noun--Mosotho (sing.), Basotho (pl.); adjective--Basotho

Ethnic divisions: 99.7% Sotho; 1,600 Europeans, 800 Asians

Religion: 80% Christian, rest indigenous beliefs

Language: Sesotho (southern Sotho) and English (official); also Zulu and Xhosa

Literacy: 65% (1987)

Labor force: 689,000 economically active; 86.2% of resident population engaged in subsistence agriculture; 150,000-250,000 spend from six months to many years as wage earners in South Africa (1985 est.)

Organized labor: negligible

NOTE: The information regarding Lesotho on this page is re-published from the 1989 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Lesotho People 1989 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Lesotho People 1989 should be addressed to the CIA.