- Area: 1,138,910 Km2 (ranked 25th worldwide, 4th in South America, more than twice the size of Spain)
- Population: 44,531,434 (ranked 28th worldwide)
Economy & Social Indicators:
- Total GDP (2004): US $95,18 billion (ranked 33rd worldwide, 3rd in South America)
- GDP per capita: US $2,137 (ranked 107th worldwide, 4th in South America after Argentina, Chile and Brazil)
- Public Debt: 47% of GDP
- Population under the line of poverty: 55% (ranked 23rd worst case worldwide, 2nd in South America where Bolivia is the worst case with 64%)
- Gini index: 57,1 (ranked 64th worldwide, 4th in South America where Bolivia is the worst case) * Gini index: Measures the extent to which the distribution of income (or consumption) among individuals or households within a country deviates from a perfectly equal distribution
- Inflation (2004): 5,5%
Natural Resources and Biodiversity:
- Biota (excluding marine): 10% of the world *Biota: flora and fauna of a region
- Living Species: Ranked 2nd worldwide after Brazil which is 7 times bigger in surface area
- Flora: around 55,000 species (ranked 2nd where 1/3 are endemic) with 3,500 species of Orquideas (15% of the total worldwide) *endemic: belongs exclusively to a specified region (in this case, Colombia)
- Forrests: more than 56 million hectares
- Sea: almost 1 million square kilometers of territorial sea
- Amount of Fresh Water: ranked 4th worldwide
- Vertebrates: 2890 species (ranked 3rd worldwide)
- Birds: 1754 species (ranked 1st with 20% of the total worldwide)
- Mammals: 358 species (ranked 4th with 7% of total worldwide)
- Reptiles: 205 species (ranked 2nd with 6% of total species worldwide)
- Amphibians: Ranked 3rd (10% of the total worldwide)
- Butterflies: 3000 species (ranked 1st)
- Fish: 2/3 of the 3000 species in South America
- Coral Reef: 3rd biggest in the world (Providencia & Santa Catalina), after Australia and Belize
Not so nice ...
- Kidnapings: 3000 people kidnapped every year (2nd worst case between Mexico and Brazil)
- Cocaine: 390 tons produced in 2004 (57% of the world´s total production, and 80% of the U.S.)
- Heroine: 6,5 tons produced every year (covers 90% of the consumption in the U.S.)
- Guerrillas: Holds the oldest and biggest guerrilla group (FARC): 40 years with 15,000 men on arms