Swaziland, in southern Africa, is bordered to the north, south, and west by South Africa, and to the east by Mozambique. It is an extremely poor country with a low standard of national health, and recently surpassed Botswana as the nation with the highest known human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) prevalence rate: 26.1 percent of adults are HIV positive or have AIDS.

The 2009 population is estimated at 1.1 million, with the disproportionately young age structure typical of developing countries. The median age is 18.8 years, with 39.4 percent of the population aged 14 years or younger. Swaziland has a negative population growth rate (minus 0.459 percent) despite a high total fertility rate (an estimate of the number of children per woman) ...