The Dominican Republic (Spanish: República Dominicana) is an island nation located on the island of Hispaniola east of Haiti, between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean.

Official language:
Spanish

Capital:
Santo Domingo
Type of state:
Presidential Republic

Area
48,730 km²

Number of inhabitants:
9 million

Population density:
181 inhabitants per km²

Currency:
Dominican Peso

Time zone:
UTC -4

Tel area code:
+1809

The largest cities are the capital Santo Domingo (2,023,029 inhabitants) in the south and Santiago de los Caballeros in the interior (555,904 inhabitants). Other cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants are La Romana and San Pedro de Macorís in the south, La Vega in the interior and Puerto Plata in the north.

Language:
The national language is Spanish. There are about 159,000 people (Haitians or Haitians of Haitian descent) living in the Dominican Republic who speak Haitian Creole. In the northeast of the country, an English-speaking minority of about 8,000 people lives in the city of Samana. These are descendants of former slaves of the USA who settled here in 1824.

Religion:
Christians, mostly Catholics (80%), then Protestant free churches and sects.

Politics:
Presidential Republic. Constitution of 1966 (amended in 1994). Compulsory voting from the age of 18. Bicameral parliament (“Congreso Nacional”): Chamber of Deputies (“Cámara de Diputados”) with 149 members, Senate (“Senado”) with 32 members. Election every 4 years. Direct election of the head of state every 4 years. Parties: Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD), Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD), Partido Reformista Social Cristiano (PRSC).

The climate on the coast of the Dominican Republic is tropical with high humidity.

Even in winter, temperatures are never measured below about 15 degrees Celsius.

The average temperature is 27 °C.

The Dom. Rep. is in the area of effect of tropical cyclones (hurricanes).

It is a bit cooler in the mountains.

In the mountains of the Cordillera Central, for example in the town of Constanza, which is located 1,400 m above sea level, temperatures below freezing are possible in winter.