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Capital: Santo Domingo

Population: 9,183,984 (July 2006 est.)

Languages: Spanish

Religions: Roman Catholic 95%

Currency: Dominican peso (DOP)

Timezone: GMT -4

The Dominican Republic is located in the Caribbean sea. It shares the island of Hispaniola, one of the Greater Antilles, with the Republic of Haiti, occupying two thirds of the island's area.

Its geographic position is 68 degrees 19' and 73 degrees 31' West longitude and 17 degrees 36' 19 degrees 59' North latitude. Its limits are: to the north the Atlantic Ocean, to the south the Caribbean Sea, to the east th eMona Channel, that separates it from the island of Puerto Rico, and to the west is the Republic of Haiti.

The Dominican Republic's coastline has in addition the Banco de la Plata and the Banco de la Navidad, which is visited by humpback whales in winter and sea turtles which come to lay eggs during this season in front of the coasts of Samana.

The Dominican Republic occupies a surface of 48.511,44 square kilometres on the main island, and the area of keys and adjacent islands is of 159,38 square kilometres, giving a total area of 48,670.82 square kilometres. The largest distances are: East to West 388kms (Cabo Desengaño - Las Lajas) and of North to the South 264 km. (Cabo Beata - Cabo Isabela). The country has 1.576 km. of coastline and 488 km. of land border with the Republic of Haiti.