101 Facts About Dominican Republic

1. The Dominican Republic is home to a threatened species of lizard in the family of Iguanidae—the rhinoceros iguana.

2. The Dominican Republic is known as the "Breadbasket of the Caribbean.

3. Dominican Republic studied under the leading Spaniard designer Cristobal Balenciaga and then worked with the house of Lanvin in Paris.

4. Dominican Republic invaded the Spanish side of the island, defeated the French-led Spanish colonials at River Yaque del Sur, and besieged the capital on March 5, 1805.

5. Dominican Republic claimed the land for Spain and named it La Espanola due to its diverse climate and terrain which reminded him of the Spanish landscape.

6. Dominican Republic does a poor job of protecting property rights.

7. The Dominican Republic is ranked 18th among 32 countries in the Americas region, and its overall score is above the regional and world averages.

8. Dominican Republic became independent from the United States on July 12, 1924.

9. Dominican Republic is located in the Caribbean on the island of Hispaniola, which it shares with Haiti.

10. Dominican Republic is located in the Caribbean, and historians believe that people have inhabited the island since at least the 7th century.

11. Dominican Republic shipping US$8.4 billion worth of goods around the globe in 2016.

12. Dominican Republic makes up the eastern two-thirds of Hispaniola, a Caribbean island.

13. Over the past decade, the Dominican Republic has become the largest source of immigration to New York City, and today the metropolitan area of New York has a larger Dominican population than any city except Santo Domingo.

14. Dominican Republic had more than 9 million people in July 2010, according to the CIA World Factbook.

15. Dominican Republic is one of the Caribbean's most geographically diverse countries, with stunning mountain scenery, desert scrublands, evocative colonial architecture and beaches galore.

16. Dominican Republic has a mixed economy based mainly on agriculture, services, trade and money sent from the many Dominicans that live in other countries (United States, Europe).

17. Dominican Republic has a total population, estimated for July 2009, of 9,650,054 inhabitants, for a density of 236.30 inhabitants per km².

18. Dominican Republic is a constitutional democracy ruled by a president.

19. Dominican Republic is a country on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola; the other country on the island is Haiti.

20. The Dominican Republic received more than 5 million tourists in 2015.

21. Dominican Republic is the most popular tourist destination in the Caribbean region, and ranks 6th overall in the Americas.

22. Dominican Republic is a sovereign state occupying the eastern five-eighths of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region.

23. Dominican Republic is a representative democracy, based on a 1966 constitution that was adopted after the US military intervention of 1965.

24. Dominican Republic is located in the central Caribbean and covers 48,322 square kilometers of the island of Hispaniola, which it shares with Haiti.

25. The US Embassy in the Dominican Republic maintains a list of attorneys willing to represent American clients.

26. The Dominican Republic has worked closely with US law enforcement officials on issues such as the return of stolen cars to the US and reducing illegal migration.

27. The Dominican Republic is current on foreign private debt and has agreed to pay arrears of about $130 million to the US Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation.

28. Dominican Republic has a multiparty political system with national elections every 4 years.

29. The Dominican Republic is about 575 miles off the southeast coast of Miami.

30. Dominican Republic has a semitropical climate, tempered by the prevailing easterly winds.

31. Dominican Republic lies between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.

32. The Dominican Republic has a rugged and mountainous terrain, with fertile valleys in the central and eastern areas.

33. Dominican Republic shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with Haiti.

34. The Dominican Republic is currently the 35th largest export market for US goods.

35. The Dominican Republic has fine beaches and many historical sites.

36. In 2003, the Dominican Republic was a major regional producer of cement, steel, ferronickel, salt, and gypsum.

37. The Dominican Republic is divided into 31 provinces and a national district, including Santo Domingo.

38. In the mid-1990s, the Dominican Republic became the main shipping point for illegal drugs smuggled into the eastern United States.

39. In 2004, the Dominican Republic had 1,743 kilometers of standard and narrow gauge railroad.

40. Dominican Republic has environmental problems in the areas of deforestation, water supply, and soil erosion.

41. The Dominican Republic has a total land boundary length of 360 kilometers with Haiti.

42. Dominican Republic covers the eastern twothirds of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.

43. The Dominican Republic has worked closely with US law enforcement officials on issues such as extraditions of fugitives, reducing illegal migration, and the return of stolen cars to the United States.

44. Dominican Republic had one of the fast growing economies in the world in the 1990s.

45. Dominican Republic has a multi-party political system with national elections every 2 years.

46. The Dominican Republic signed a free trade agreement with the United States and five Central American countries in August 2004.

47. The Dominican Republic is the 47th-largest commercial partner of the US The US Embassy works closely with US business firms and Dominican trade groups, both of which can take advantage of the new opportunities in this growing market.

48. The Dominican Republic has worked closely with US law enforcement officials on issues such as the extradition of fugitives and measures to hinder illegal migration.

49. The Dominican Republic is a founding member of the United Nations and participates in many of its specialized and related agencies, including the World Bank, International Labor Organization, International Atomic Energy Agency, and International Civil Aviation Organization.

50. Dominican Republic has a multiparty political system with national elections every 2 years.

51. Dominican Republic signed a free trade agreement with the United States and five Central American countries in August 2004, in the last weeks of the Mejia administration.

52. The Dominican Republic is divided into twenty-nine provinces, each run by a governor who is appointed by the president.

53. The Dominican Republic is the world's fourth-largest location of free trade zones, and much of the nation's industrial work occurs there.

54. The Dominican Republic is among the fastest-growing economies in Latin America.

55. The Dominican Republic is located on the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola and is 18,816 square miles, about twice the size of New Hampshire.

56. The Dominican Republic became a nation on 27 February 1844 when a group of revolutionaries seized power from the Haitian rulers of the island of Hispaniola.

57. Dominican Republic borders both the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.

58. Dominican Republic has a semitropical climate tempered by the prevailing easterly winds.

59. Dominican Republic is a Caribbean country that covers the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola.

60. The Dominican Republic has made it clear to the United States that it would like to be part of an enlarged NAFTA or similar regional free-trade bloc.

61. The Dominican Republic is a major producer of bananas, and although most are consumed locally, some producers have begun exporting organic bananas to a growing market in Europe and the United States.

62. Dominican Republic has 13 airports, 5 of them classified as "international.

63. Dominican Republic is a multi-party democracy, with the president, 149-seat Chamber of Deputies, 30-seat Senate, and local officials elected by popular vote.

64. The Dominican Republic had an estimated external debt of US$4.7 billion in 2000 and remained highly dependent on importing many basic goods.

65. The Dominican Republic is one of the Caribbean's most popular tourist destinations, specializing in all-inclusive resorts.

66. Dominican Republic rates 55th worldwide as advanced in technological advancement showing a score of 0.244 as compared to Finland, the most advanced with an indicator of 0.744 and the United States at 0.733.

67. In 2002, the Dominican Republic hosted their semi-annual meeting at Casa De Campo.

68. The Dominican Republic is Hispanic, Spanish-speaking, predominantly mulatto or white, while Haiti is French and African culturally, racially black, with an official language of Haitian Creole.

69. The Dominican Republic has an area of 48,400 kilometers, and its population was estimated at 8.4 million in 1999.

70. Dominican Republic has over 200 radio stations, including short-wave and FM outlets.

71. The Dominican Republic produces rice, potatoes, beans, plantains, yucca, and other crops for domestic consumption.

72. Dominican Republic has begun to achieve maturity in artistic, technical, and intellectual pursuits.

73. Dominican Republic now has several golf courses, and others are being planned or built.

74. Dominican Republic is officially Roman Catholic, but many other denominations maintain churches in the country.

75. The Dominican Republic has two oil refineries, with a total production capacity in 2002 of 49,000 barrels per day.

76. The Dominican Republic has the largest single allocation of the US sugar import quota.

77. The Dominican Republic is among the top ten developing countries in terms of the amount of remittances received from abroad.

78. Dominican Republic is a member of the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean and an observer in the Nonaligned Movement.

79. Dominican Republic is a charter member of the UN, having joined on 24 October 1945, and participates in the ECLAC, as well as other nonregional specialized agencies.

80. Dominican Republic is divided into 31 provinces and a National District, encompassing Santo Domingo.

81. In 2004, the Dominican Republic had 1,743 km of standard and narrow gauge railroad.

82. The Dominican Republic began to issue identity cards to 300,000 Dominicans living illegally in Puerto Rico.

83. Dominican Republic is generally mountainous, with deserts in the extreme western regions.

84. The Dominican Republic is home to a threatened species of lizard in the family of Iguanidae—the rhinoceros iguana.

85. The Dominican Republic is known as the "Breadbasket of the Caribbean.

86. The Dominican Republic is the only country in the world to produce a rare blue variety of the silicate mineral pectolite.

87. The Dominican Republic is the oldest European settlement in the Western Hemisphere.

88. The Dominican Republic sent food, medicine, and teams to assess the damage.

89. Dominican Republic was explored by Columbus on his first voyage in 1492.

90. Dominican Republic has enjoyed strong GDP growth since 2005, with double digit growth in 2006.

91. The Dominican Republic has two unique endemic stones that can't be found anywhere else in the world: Dominican Amber and Larimar.

92. The Dominican Republic is the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas.

93. The Dominican Republic is a popular destination for weddings and honeymoons.

94. The Dominican Republic is the only country in the world to have an image of the Holy Bible on its national flag.

95. Dominican Republic is a country in the Caribbean that shares its land boundary with Haiti on the west.

96. The Dominican Republic responded with increased efforts to seize drug shipments, arrest and extradite those involved, and combat money-laundering.

97. Dominican Republic has become a trans-shipment point for Colombian drugs destined for Europe as well as the United States and Canada.

98. In 2012 the Dominican Republic had a murder rate of 22.1 per 100,000 population.

99. In 2007 the Dominican Republic had a birth rate of 22.91 per 1000 and a death rate of 5.32 per 1000.

100. The Dominican Republic is ranked 2nd in Latin America and 23rd in the World on English proficiency.

101. The majority of the Dominican Republic has access to electricity.