The climate is generally sunny, hot, and dry. In the north the climate is semiarid steppe, known locally as the Sahelian type and characterized by three to five months of rainfall, which is often erratic. To the south it becomes increasingly of the tropical wet-dry type sometimes called Sudanic, characterized by greater variability of temperature and rainfall and greater total rainfall.

Four seasons may be distinguished in Burkina Faso: a dry and cool season from mid-November to mid-February, with temperatures dropping to about 60° F (16° C) at night; a hot season from mid-February to June, when maximum temperatures rise to about 104° F (40° C) in the shade and the harmattan—a hot, dry, dust-laden wind blowing off the Sahara—is prevalent; a rainy season, which lasts from June to September; and an intermediate season, which lasts from September until mid-November. Annual rainfall varies from about 40 inches (1,000 millimetres) in the south to less than 10 inches in the north.

The northern part of the country consists of savanna, with prickly shrubs and stunted trees that come to life during the rainy season. In the south the prickly shrubs give way to scattered forests, which become more dense along the banks of the perennial rivers. While tree growth in the north is discouraged by the climate, farmers in the south often permit only useful trees, such as the karite (shea tree) or the baobab, to survive.

Animal life in the eastern region includes buffalo, antelope, lions, hippopotamuses, elephants, and crocodiles. Elephants, buffalo, and antelope are also found in the southeast and on the banks of the Black Volta, while herds of hippopotamuses are to be seen some 40 miles from the city of Bobo Dioulasso. Animal life also includes monkeys. Bird and insect life is rich and varied, and there are many fish in the rivers.

The population as a whole is unevenly distributed among the different regions. The Mossi country is densely settled. Situated in the eastern and central regions, it contains about two-thirds of the total population. In the remaining regions the population is scattered.

About 90 percent of the population is rural—the highest percentage in western Africa—and lives in some 7,700 villages. Villages tend to be grouped toward the centre of the country at higher elevations away from the Volta valleys. For several miles on either side of the Volta rivers, the land is mostly uninhabited because of the prevalence of the deadly tsetse fly, which carries sleeping sickness, and the simulium fly, which carries onchocerciasis, or river blindness.

Ouagadougou, the administrative capital and the seat of government, is a modern town in which several commercial companies have their headquarters. It is also the residence of the morho naba, emperor of the Mossi, and an important regional centre for international aid programs.

Apart from Ouagadougou, the principal towns are Bobo Dioulasso, Koudougou, Ouahigouya, Kaya, Fada Ngourma, and Banfora. Bobo Dioulasso, in the west, was the economic and business capital of the country when it formed the terminus of the railroad running to Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, on the coast; since 1955, however, when the railroad was extended to Ouagadougou, it has lost some of its former importance, although it remains a commercial centre.

Two principal ethnic groups live in Burkina Faso. The first of these is the Voltaic (Gur) group, which may be further divided into five subgroups—the Mossi, which include the Gurma and the Yarse, the Gurunsi, the Senufo, the Bobo, and the Lobi. The second group is the Mande family, which is divided into four subgroups: the Samo, the Marka, the Busansi, and the Dyula. In addition, there are Hausa traders, Fulani herders, and the Tuareg, or rather their settled servants, the Bella.

Each of the ethnic groups found in Burkina Faso has its own language, although Moré, the language of the Mossi, is spoken by a great majority of the population and Dyula and Hausa are widely used in commerce. French (French language), the official language, is used for all communication with other countries. About one-half of the population are animists, attaching great importance to ancestor worship. Islām exerts an increasing influence upon customs, and Muslims account for approximately two-fifths of the population. The seat of the Roman Catholic archbishopric is Ouagadougou, and there are eight bishoprics. There are few Protestants in the country.

In the late 20th century, yearly population growth averaged more than 2 percent; nearly one-half of the population is below the age of 15. Average life expectancy is 47 years for women and 44 years for men.

Most of the population is engaged in subsistence agriculture or stock raising. Difficult economic conditions, made worse by severe intermittent droughts, have provoked considerable migration from rural to urban areas within Burkina Faso and to neighbouring countries such as Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. As many as 1.5 million people, or almost one-third of the country's labour force, are abroad at any given time.

The development of industry in Burkina Faso is hampered by the small size of the market economy and by the absence of a direct outlet to the sea.

Minerals, especially manganese and gold, represent potential wealth for this otherwise poorly endowed nation. Gold mines at Poura, southwest of Koudougou, were reopened in late 1984, and smaller gold deposits near Sebba and Dori-Yalogo in the north are known to exist. Reserves of nickel, bauxite, zinc, lead, and silver are being studied. The country's substantial manganese deposits at Tambao in the northeast potentially represent Burkina's most important resource and one of the world's richest sources of this mineral. Exploitation is limited by existing transport inadequacies.

Agricultural production consists of subsistence foodstuffs, with the surplus being sold as cash crops. Surplus cotton, shea nuts, sesame, and sugarcane are exported, while sorghum, millet, corn (maize), peanuts (groundnuts), and rice are grown for local consumption. Fonio (a crabgrass with seeds that are used as cereal), cassava, sweet potatoes, and beans are also grown. Stock raising, one of the principal sources of revenue, includes cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, donkeys, horses, and camels. Chickens, ducks, and guinea fowl are also raised.

Industry is limited to a number of plants, mainly in the cities and larger towns, that produce processed rice, beer, soft drinks, and flour, manufacture textiles and shoes, and assemble bicycles.

Burkina Faso, along with six other French-speaking states in western Africa, is a member of the West African Monetary Union. These states share a common central bank, with headquarters in Dakar, Senegal, and a common currency, the CFA (Communauté Financière Africaine) franc. Branches of the central bank in Burkina Faso are located in Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso. Among the partially or wholly state-owned commercial banks, the most important is the Banque Internationale du Burkina in Ouagadougou. Burkina Faso is also a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a body encompassing most states in western Africa, which attempts to integrate and harmonize the economic interests of the region. One of the poorest countries in the world, Burkina Faso relies heavily on international aid and on remittances from migrants to help offset its current account deficit.

External commerce, both in imports and in exports, is primarily with the Franc Zone and with neighbouring African countries in particular. Many cattle are exported to Côte d'Ivoire and to Ghana. There is a deficit in the balance of payments, largely due to the relatively small amounts of exports, which are not of sufficient value to equal the value of imported materials required for promoting further development.

In addition to the rail line that links Ouagadougou to the port of Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire, the capital is also linked by road to the principal administrative centres in the country and to the capitals of neighbouring countries. The railroad to Abidjan is 712 miles long, of which 321 miles run through Burkina Faso. Running from east to west before crossing the border, the line serves the towns of Koudougou, Bobo Dioulasso, and Banfora.

Burkina Faso has one of the most poorly developed road networks in proportion to its size among the western African states. Only about a quarter of the network is usable year-round. The remainder consists mostly of unpaved rural roads. Three road-building projects completed in the late 1960s and early 1970s were financed by the European Development Fund. The first of these roads runs from Bobo Dioulasso to Faramana to the Mali frontier. The second runs from Ouagadougou to Pô to the Ghanaian frontier. The third runs from Ouagadougou to Koupéla. Additional internationally aided road maintenance and improvement programs, particularly in the country's northeast, were carried out in the 1980s.

International airports are located at Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso. Internal air service, linking about 50 smaller airstrips, is supplied by the national airline.

A constitution, adopted by referendum in 1991, allowed for multiparty elections and a parliamentary republic with a president as chief of state and a prime minister as the head of the government. The legislative branch of the government is represented by the National Assembly, whose members are elected by universal suffrage.

Burkina Faso is divided into 45 provinces, which in turn are divided into 382 départements. Each province is administered by a high commissioner.

School enrollment is one of the lowest in Africa, even though the government devotes a large portion of the national budget to education. French is the language of instruction in primary and secondary schools. Higher education is sought at Ouagadougou University (established 1974). Other institutes in Ouagadougou sponsored by neighbouring francophone states offer degrees in rural engineering and hydrology. Some students seek higher education in France; in Dakar, Senegal; or in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.

The state of health of the Burkinabé is generally poor. Most hospitals are in the larger towns, but the government has improved access to primary health care by increasing the number of village clinics. Main causes of death in Burkina Faso include lower respiratory diseases, malaria, and diarrheal diseases (diarrhea). Other diseases in the country include onchocerciasis, sleeping sickness, leprosy, yellow fever, and schistosomiasis. Periodic droughts have contributed to malnutrition and related diseases, especially among young children and pregnant women. Burkina Faso has a lower prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS (AIDS) than do many other African countries. The government has focused on prevention and treatment of AIDS with some success, and the prevalence rate has decreased since the beginning of the 21st century.

Folklore is rich, reflecting the country's ethnic diversity. On national occasions each region is represented in the capital by its own folkloric group.

Ouagadougou draws large numbers of visitors to the biennial Pan-African Film Festival (FESPACO). The International Crafts Fair, which is held in alternate years, celebrates the rich and diverse craft production of the nation's artisans. Several daily newspapers are published, including the government-sponsored Sidwaya, as well as a number of weeklies. There are three national parks—those of Po, Arly, and in the east, straddling the border with Benin and Niger, the great “W” National Park.

Axes belonging to a Neolithic culture have been found in the north of Burkina Faso. The Bobo, Lobi, and Gurunsi are the earliest known inhabitants of the country. About the 15th century AD, conquering horsemen invaded the region from the south and founded the Gurma and the Mossi (Mossi states) kingdoms, in the eastern and central areas, respectively. Several Mossi kingdoms developed, the most powerful of which was that of Ouagadougou, in the centre of the country. Headed by an emperor titled the morho naba (“great lord”), the Ouagadougou Mossi state defeated attempted invasions by Muslim Songhai and Fulani neighbours yet maintained valuable commercial links with major western African trading powers such as the Dyula, the Hausa, and the Asante (Ashanti).

The German explorer Gottlob Adolf Krause traversed the Mossi country in 1886; and the French army officer Louis-Gustave Binger visited the morho naba in 1888. France obtained a protectorate over Yatenga in 1895; and Paul Voulet and Charles-Paul-Louis Chanoine defeated the morho naba Boukari-Koutou (Wobogo) in 1896 and then proceeded to overrun the Gurunsi lands. The Gurma accepted a French protectorate in 1897; and in 1897 likewise the lands of the Bobo and of the Lobi were annexed by the French (though the Lobi, armed with poisoned arrows, were not effectively subdued until 1903). An Anglo-French convention of 1898 fixed the frontier between France's new acquisitions and the northern territories of the Gold Coast.

The French divided the country into administrative cercles (“circles”) but maintained the chiefs, including the morho naba, in their traditional seats. At first attached to French Sudan (or Upper Senegal-Niger, as that colony was called from 1904 to 1920), the country was organized as a separate colony, Upper Volta (Haute-Volta), in 1919. In 1932 it was partitioned between Côte d'Ivoire, Niger, and French Sudan. In 1947, however, Upper Volta was reestablished to become an overseas territory of the French Union, with a territorial assembly of its own. The assembly in 1957 received the right to elect an executive council of government for the territory, which at the end of 1958 was transformed into an autonomous republic within the French Community. When independence was proclaimed on August 5, 1960, the new constitution provided for an executive president elected by universal adult suffrage for a five-year term and an elected Legislative Assembly.

Since Burkina Faso became an independent nation, the military has on several occasions intervened during times of crisis. In 1966 the military, led by Lieutenant-Colonel (later General) Sangoulé Lamizana, ousted the elected government of Maurice Yaméogo. General Lamizana dominated the nation's politics until November 1980, when a series of strikes launched by workers, teachers, and civil servants led to another coup, this time headed by Colonel Saye Zerbo.

Colonel Zerbo's short-lived rule ended in November 1982, when noncommissioned army officers rebelled and installed Major Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo as president. The Ouedraogo government soon split into conservative and radical factions, with the radicals seizing power on August 4, 1983. They set up a National Revolutionary Council (CNR) with Captain Thomas Sankara as head of state.

A year after taking power, Sankara renamed the country Burkina Faso, meaning “Land of Incorruptible People,” and ordered all officials, including himself, to open their bank accounts to public scrutiny. His government was responsible for several concrete achievements: vaccination and housing projects, tree planting to hold back the Sahel, promotion of women's rights, and curbing of waste in government.

During Sankara's rule, tensions with Mali over the mineral-rich Agacher Strip erupted in a brief border war in December 1985. The dispute was settled in the International Court of Justice at The Hague a year later, to the satisfaction of both states.

Initially a coalition of radical groups that included army officers, trade unionists, and members of small opposition groups, the Sankara regime gradually lost most of its popular support as power became concentrated in the hands of a few military officers—the most important of which were Sankara, Captain Blaise Compaoré, Major Jean-Baptiste Boukari Lingani, and Captain Henri Zongo. As popular support continued to decline, on October 15, 1987, a military coup overthrew Sankara, killing him and several others.

Compaoré took power at the head of a triumvirate that included Captain Zongo and Major Lingani. However, as time went on, Lingani and Zongo disagreed with Compaoré about economic reform issues, and in 1989 they were accused of plotting to overthrow him. The two were arrested and quickly executed, and Compaoré continued to pursue his political agenda. In 1991 a new constitution was promulgated, and Compaoré was elected president in an election that was boycotted by opposition candidates. Compaoré continued to rule into the 21st century, although his regime was not without opposition or controversy. Unpopular political and economic developments and the suspicious death of a prominent journalist known for speaking out against Compaoré's administration contributed to periodic episodes of social and political unrest during the 1990s and 2000s.