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Haiti

OFFICIAL NAME: Republic of Haiti

DATE OF FORMATION: 1804

POPULATION: 8.4 million

DENSITY: 789 people per square mile

LANGUAGES: French Creole, French

RELIGIONS: Roman Catholic 80%, Protestant 16%, Other (including Voodoo) 3%, Nonreligious 1%

ETHNIC MIX: Black African 95%, Mulatto (mixed race) and European 5%

GOVERNMENT: Multiparty elections

CURRENCY: Gourde

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Haiti occupies the western third of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. A colony of Spain and then of France, in 1804 it was the first ethnic black state and the first Caribbean country to become independent. Democracy did not materialize with the exile of the dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier in 1986. Since then, a series of coups, US military intervention, and popular uprisings have resulted in periodic anarchy and endemic poverty.