Size: 1,098,581 square kilometers.

Topography: Landlocked. Land is 20 percent arid or desert, 40 percent rain forest, 25 percent pasture and meadow, 2 percent arable, 2 percent inland water, and 11 percent other, including negligible percentage irrigated. Divided by two parallel Andean ranges or cordilleras, on roughly north-south axis, into three distinct ecozones: vast arid Altiplano plateau between western range (Cordillera Occidental) and eastern range (Cordillera Occidental), with Lake Titicaca on northern end semitropical Yungas and temperate valleys of Cordillera Oriental and eastern lowlands (Oriente), including semiarid Chaco region.

Climate: Tropical with heavy rainfall in northern lowlands to temperate in highland valleys and harsh, chilly conditions on windswept Altiplano, where daily temperatures fluctuate sharply. Uninhabited areas over 5,500 meters high have arctic climate.

Data as of December 1989