Benin is located in West Africa and covers a land area Of 112,622 Sq. km. and constitutes a long stretch of hand perpendicular to the Coast of the Gulf of Guinea. It is bordered on the North by Burkina Faso and the Republic of Niger, on the East by the Federal Republic of Nigeria and on the West by the Republic of Togo. With a 124 kilometers long coastline, it stretches North to South some 672 kilometers while its breath extends 324 kilometers at the evident point. It is above two third the Size of Portugal. Benin is characterized by unusually dry conditions. This is due primarily to two very important factors. First, the situation of the coast which is rather well protected from the western winds; second, the Atakora Barrier in the West and North West which decreases the amount of rainfall. Over half the people speak Fon. Yoruba, Mina, Bariba and Dendi are the other important languages. French is the official language. Beside the French language, English is necessarily one of the two foreign languages taught in secondary schools.
Benin's population (2001 estimate) is 6,590,782, and is growing at a rate of 3 percent per year. Overall density is 59 persons per sq km (152 per sq mi), but is much higher in the south, where two-thirds of the inhabitants live. Some 41 percent live in urban areas. The main cities are Cotonou (population, 1994 estimate, 750,000); Porto-Novo (200,000), the capital; and Parakou (120,000). Some 42 ethnic groups are represented in Benin. The Fon, or Dahomeans, and the closely related Adja, who together account for about three-fifths of the population, are the main ethnic groups in the south; the Bariba and Somba (together about one-sixth of the population) are the largest in the north; and the Yoruba (one-tenth of the population) predominate in the southeast.
Some 64 percent of the workforce in Benin is engaged in agriculture, forestry, or fishing. The largest share are subsistence farmers. The principal food crops are corn, cassava, sorghum, yams, millet, and beans. Cash crops, produced mainly in the south, include cotton, palm kernels, peanuts, and cacao. The herding of cattle, sheep, and goats predominates in the grasslands of the north.