About Haiti

ABOUT HAITI

* Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

* About 54 percent of its more than 9 million residents live in abject poverty.

* Haiti is slightly smaller than Maryland and shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.

* The population is 95 percent black and 80 percent Roman Catholic.

* French and Creole are the official languages.

* About half the population practices voodoo.

* The nation has four airports with paved runways and is favored by Columbian drug dealers for routing cocaine shipments, in part because of widespread corruption.

Source: CIA World Factbook

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The U.S. Bureau of Census estimates there are 19,642 Georgia residents and 1,820 persons living in Tennessee with Haitian ancestry.

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