Feb 28 (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi marks the 30th anniversary of his state of the masses Jamahiriyah system on Friday. In 1977 he changed the country's name to the Great Socialist Popular Libyan Arab Jamahiriyah (popular republic) when Libyans were given the right to air their views at people's congresses in what Gaddafi continues to describe as grass-roots democracy. Here are some key facts about the country. * GEOGRAPHY - Area is 1,759,540 sq. km and shares its borders to the east with Egypt and Sudan and to the south with Chad and Niger and to the west with Algeria and Tunisia. The Mediterranean is to the north. * POPULATION/PEOPLE - Arabs account for 90 percent of the population of 6 million. There is a Berber minority as well as an immigrant population that includes Egyptian, Italian and Greek communities. * LANGUAGE - Arabic is the official language. Regional variations of Berber are also spoken, as well as Italian and English. * RELIGION - The official religion is Islam, and Libyan Muslims are mainly Sunni. There is a small Christian minority. * ECONOMY - Libya launched an Economic Development Board at the end of February to lure investment, foster free enterprise and lessen reliance on the state-controlled energy sector. -- Gaddafi regularly scolds the north African OPEC member country for over-reliance on oil, the source of almost all Libya's hard currency earnings. Nominal gross domestic product by expenditure was 31 billion dinars ($24.s billion) in 2003. * SOME HISTORY: Libya gained independence in September 1951, after a decade of British and French administration, as a federal monarchy of three regions under King Mohammed Idris. -- On Sept. 1, 1969, Gaddafi, then a 27-year-old army officer, led a military coup which deposed Idris and set up a Revolutionary Command Council (RCC). INDICATORS - Libya ranks 64th out of 177 countries in the U.N. human development index. Life expectancy was 74 in 2003. The adult literacy rate was 82 percent in 2003, according to the UNESCO statistics institute. Libya was rated 117 out of 159 countries in Transparency International's 2005 Corruption Perceptions Index. Libya scores 7 out of Freedom House's rating of political and civil liberties, with 7 being the most unfree. ($1 =1.28 Libyan dinars)
