Lesotho

• temperate;
• cool to cold, dry winters;
• hot, wet summers

noun:

Mosotho (singular), Basotho (plural)

adjective:

Basotho

total:

23.9 years (2024 est.)

male:

23.4 years

female:

24.3 years

at birth:

1.03 male(s)/female

0-14 years:

1.01 male(s)/female

15-64 years:

1 male(s)/female

65 years and over:

0.59 male(s)/female

total population:

0.98 male(s)/female (2024 est.)

total:

45.7 deaths/1,000 live births (2024 est.)

male:

51 deaths/1,000 live births

female:

40.2 deaths/1,000 live births

total population:

60.2 years (2024 est.)

male:

58.1 years

female:

62.3 years

total:

3.56 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

beer:

1.98 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

wine:

0.44 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

spirits:

0.31 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

other alcohols:

0.82 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

total:

24.3% (2020 est.)

male:

43.1% (2020 est.)

female:

5.4% (2020 est.)

women married by age 15:

1%

women married by age 18:

16.4%

men married by age 18:

1.9% (2018 est.)

• population pressure forcing settlement in marginal areas results in overgrazing, severe soil erosion, and soil exhaustion;
• desertification;
• Highlands Water Project controls, stores, and redirects water to South Africa

party to:

Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands

signed, but not ratified:

none of the selected agreements

• temperate;
• cool to cold, dry winters;
• hot, wet summers

urban population:

30.4% of total population (2023)

rate of urbanization:

2.77% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

severe localized food insecurity:

• due to h igh food prices and economic downturn - food insecurity conditions are primarily underpinned by the high food prices and a slow economic recovery that is impinging on households’ economic capacity to access food;
• Lesotho is a net importer of key staple food commodities and energy, domestic prices have been largely influenced by the high level of international prices (2023)

particulate matter emissions:

17.6 micrograms per cubic meter (2019 est.)

carbon dioxide emissions:

2.51 megatons (2016 est.)

methane emissions:

2.56 megatons (2020 est.)

municipal:

20 million cubic meters (2020 est.)

industrial:

20 million cubic meters (2020 est.)

agricultural:

3.8 million cubic meters (2017 est.)

conventional long form:

Kingdom of Lesotho

conventional short form:

Lesotho

local long form:

Kingdom of Lesotho

local short form:

Lesotho

former:

Basutoland

etymology:

the name translates as "Land of the Sesotho Speakers"

name:

Maseru

geographic coordinates:

29 19 S, 27 29 E

time difference:

UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)

etymology:

in the Sesotho language the name means "[place of] red sandstones"

history:

previous 1959, 1967; latest adopted 2 April 1993 (effectively restoring the 1967 version)

amendments:

• proposed by Parliament;
• passage of amendments affecting constitutional provisions, including fundamental rights and freedoms, sovereignty of the kingdom, the office of the king, and powers of Parliament, requires a majority vote by the National Assembly, approval by the Senate, approval in a referendum by a majority of qualified voters, and assent of the king;
• passage of amendments other than those specified provisions requires at least a two-thirds majority vote in both houses of Parliament;
• amended several times, last in 2011

citizenship by birth:

yes

citizenship by descent only:

yes

dual citizenship recognized:

no

residency requirement for naturalization:

5 years

chief of state:

King LETSIE III (since 7 February 1996)

head of government:

Prime Minister Ntsokoane Samuel MATEKANE (28 October 2022)

cabinet:

• consists of the prime minister, appointed by the King on the advice of the Council of State, the deputy prime minister, and 18 other ministers;
• the prime minister is the leader of the majority party or majority coalition in the National Assembly

elections/appointments:

• the monarchy is hereditary, but under the terms of the constitution that came into effect after the March 1993 election, the monarch is a "living symbol of national unity" with no executive or legislative powers;
• under traditional law, the College of Chiefs has the power to depose the monarch, to determine next in line of succession, or to serve as regent in the event that a successor is not of mature age

; note - King LETSIE III formerly occupied the throne from November 1990 to February 1995 while his father was in exile

highest court(s):

• Court of Appeal (consists of the court president, such number of justices of appeal as set by Parliament, and the Chief Justice and the puisne judges of the High Court ex officio);
• High Court (consists of the chief justice and such number of puisne judges as set by Parliament);
• note - both the Court of Appeal and the High Court have jurisdiction in constitutional issues

judge selection and term of office:

• Court of Appeal president and High Court chief justice appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister;
• puisne judges appointed by the monarch on advice of the Judicial Service Commission, an independent body of judicial officers and officials designated by the monarch;
• judges of both courts can serve until age 75

subordinate courts:

• Magistrate Courts;
• customary or traditional courts;
• military courts

• All Basotho Convention or ABC
• Alliance of Democrats or AD
• Basotho Action Party or BAP
• Basotho National Party or BNP
• Democratic Congress or DC
• Democratic Party of Lesotho or DPL
• Lesotho People's Congress or LPC
• Movement of Economic Change or MEC
• National Independent Party or NIP
• Popular Front for Democracy of PFD
• Reformed Congress of Lesotho or RCL

chief of mission:

Ambassador Tumisang MOSOTHO (since 16 September 2022)

chancery:

2511 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008

telephone:

[1] (202) 797-5533

FAX:

[1] (202) 234-6815

email address and website:

[email protected]; https://www.gov.ls/

chief of mission:

Ambassador Maria E. BREWER (since 10 March 2022)

embassy:

254 Kingsway Avenue, Maseru

mailing address:

2340 Maseru Place, Washington DC 20521-2340

telephone:

[266] 22312666

FAX:

[266] 22310116

email address and website:

[email protected]; https://ls.usembassy.gov/

• three horizontal stripes of blue (top), white, and green in the proportions of 3:4:3;
• the colors represent rain, peace, and prosperity respectively;
• centered in the white stripe is a black mokorotlo, a traditional Basotho straw hat and national symbol;
• the redesigned flag was unfurled in October 2006 to celebrate 40 years of independence

name:

"Lesotho fatse la bo ntat'a rona" (Lesotho, Land of Our Fathers)

lyrics/music:

Francois COILLARD/Ferdinand-Samuel LAUR

note: adopted 1967; music derives from an 1823 Swiss songbook

total World Heritage Sites:

1 (mixed)

selected World Heritage Site locales:

Maloti-Drakensberg Park

• lower middle-income economy surrounded by South Africa;
• environmentally fragile and politically unstable;
• key infrastructure and renewable energy investments;
• dire poverty;
• urban job and income losses due to COVID-19;
• systemic corruption

agriculture:

6.3% (2023 est.)

industry:

29.5% (2023 est.)

services:

51.4% (2023 est.)

note: figures may not total 100% due to non-allocated consumption not captured in sector-reported data

total:

24.8% (2023 est.)

male:

17.5% (2023 est.)

female:

34.8% (2023 est.)

note: % of labor force ages 15-24 seeking employment

lowest 10%:

1.7% (2017 est.)

highest 10%:

32.9% (2017 est.)

note: % share of income accruing to lowest and highest 10% of population

total subscriptions:

7,000 (2022 est.)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants:

(2022 est.) less than 1

general assessment:

• until late 2020, Lesotho’s telecom regulator maintained a market duopoly which is focused on fixed-line services;
• competition was insufficient to promote effective price reductions for consumers, while the regulator had no mechanisms in place to monitor the telcos to ensure quality of service and fair pricing for consumers;
• the small size of the country’s population provided little incentive for new players to enter the market;
• a positive outcome for consumers was the deployment in early 2021 of a service to monitor traffic and billing;
• this ended the practice whereby the regulator was dependent on telcos submitting data about their performance, billing, and other matters;
• the regulator has also turned its attention to addressing multiple SIM ownership and stemming incidences of crimes committed using unregistered SIMs;
• in May 2022, it instructed the country’s Mobile Network Operators to begin registering SIM cards on their networks from the following month;
• fixed-wireless 5G trials began in early 2019 (2022)

domestic:

fixed-line is less than 1 per 100 subscriptions; mobile-cellular service subscribership is 80 per 100 persons (2021)

international:

• country code - 266;
• Internet accessibility has improved with several submarine fiber optic cables that land on African east and west coasts, but the country's land locked position makes access prices expensive;
• satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) (2019)

• 1 state-owned TV station and 2 state-owned radio stations;
• most private broadcast media transmitters are connected to government radio signal towers;
• satellite TV subscription service available;
• transmissions of multiple international broadcasters obtainable (2019)

total:

6,906 km

paved:

1,799 km

unpaved:

5,107 km (2022)

• Lesotho's declared policy for its military is the maintenance of the country's sovereignty and the preservation of internal security;
• in practice, external security is guaranteed by South Africa;
• the LDF is a small force comprised of about a half dozen infantry companies;
• it began in 1964 as the Police Mobile Unit (PMU);
• the PMU was designated as the Lesotho Paramilitary Force in 1980 and became the Royal Lesotho Defense Force in 1986;
• it was renamed the Lesotho Defense Force in 1993 (2024)