Geography and Population. Wyoming Nebraska Utah Colorado Kansas Missouri The geographic scale of the MidContinental Region offers both challenges and opportunities. From its western border to the Mississippi River in the east, the Region extends over 1,000 miles and across two time zones. Geographically, the region is extremely diverse, including the western desert, Rocky Mountains, Great Plains and Mississippi Valley. Population distribution is among the most extreme in the continental United States with many remote areas. A few metropolitan areas – St. Louis, Kansas City, Omaha, Denver, and Salt Lake City – break up the open landscape. The large metropolitan areas, like St. Louis, exemplify the inner-city environment. The demographics of the population in the NN/LM MCR is primarily white. However, interspersed amongst the region are small, but significant, minority populations. The NN/LM MCR faces the same issues and challenges that are faced in all regions to improve health information literacy and reduce health disparities. The racial and ethnic percentages of our population are increasing. Health care providers are more frequently encountering refugees from different cultures and an increasing minority workforce of Spanish language speakers. The percentage of the uninsured in the region and the number of medically underserved counties contribute to health disparities that need to be addressed. The uninsured in the region in 2013 varies from 10% (KS, NE) to 17% (WY). The national average was 17%.1 Many of the counties (428) in the Region have been designated as underserved by either the federal government or the state.2 According to the 2013 census report, the Region is relatively well connected to the Internet.3 Four states rank above the national for average households with a computer; Nebraska meets the national average; Missouri falls below the national average. The same report indicates that five out of the six states in our region rank higher than the national average for people owning a computer with high-speed Internet use. Missouri was the only state that fell below the national average. Cities in Colorado, Kansas, and Utah also ranked highest among metropolitan areas for high-speed Internet use. No cities within our Region ranked among the lowest metropolitan areas. Google fiber is available in Kansas City, KS and Provo, UT and will soon be available in Salt Lake City, UT.
Geography and Population. Sierra Leone is located in West Africa, bordered by Liberia to the southeast, Guinea to the north and northwest, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers an area of 71,740 sq km with a population of 5.63 million people (CIA, 2012). The majority of the population, 62%, lives in rural areas (CIA, 2012). Sierra Leone is broken into four provinces: Northern, Southern, Western, and Eastern. There are two to five districts that make up each province, for a total of 14 districts (SSL, 2009). Each district is further broken down into chiefdoms. On average, each district contains 10-15 chiefdoms (SSL, 2009). Each chiefdom is comprised of a number of villages or urban areas.
Geography and Population. Kenya covers an area of 587,000 km2. It borders Ethiopia to the North, South Sudan to the Northwest and Uganda to the West, Tanzania to the South and Somalia and the Indian Ocean to the East. Kenya lies between 5° N and 5°S latitudes and 34°E and 43°E longitudes. Of Kenya's total area, 576,076 km2 is land and 11,230 km2 is covered by water. Only 20% of the total land area is arable, the rest is arid or semi- arid land (ASAL). Out of the ASAL’s 48 million ha 24 million ha is currently mainly used for nomadic pastoralism. In 2013, Kenya’s population was projected at 44,037,656 from the 2009 housing and population census. The growth rate is estimated to be 2.27%; the urbanization rate is 4.36%1. Approximately 36% of the population lives in ASAL areas. Four million of these people are nomadic pastoralists2.
