Andorra

With an area of 468 km², the Principality of Andorra is the biggest of the small European nations. Andorra’s border with France is 37 km long, and with Spain 64 km. The craggy, mountainous relief of Andorra is made up of 65 peaks of more than 2,000 m high enclosing two valleys varying between 2,942 m, the highest point above sea level of the peak of Comapedrosa, and 838m, corresponding to the lowest point of the border with Catalonia.

Andorra is the only country in the world with a political system based on co-princes, or in other words, the only one with two Heads of State. In spite of its long history –according to legend Andorra was founded by Charlemagne in 805 out of gratitude for the help its people had given in the fight against the Saracens – its Constitution is recent, written in 1993 when the Principality became an independent State with its own laws, democracy and social system. It is divided for administrative purposes into seven parishes or Comuns (councils): Canillo, Encamp, Ordino, La Massana, Andorra la Vella, Sant Julià de Lòria, and Escaldes-Engordany.

In just one year, Andorra has gone from having 78,549 inhabitants in 2005 to 81,222 in 2006, a 3.4% increase in the population. This is a surprising figure when we bear in mind that the urbanised and cultivated area of Andorra represents between 8 and 9% of the whole country. The remainder is made up of woods, lakes, rivers, mountains and meadows. Most of the population lives in the capital, Andorra la Vella (24,211 inhabitants), and Escaldes-Engordany (16,391 inhabitants); these urban centres, along with Pas de la Casa, are the country’s major business and trading centres.>