from
CIA World Factbook 2006
World
Introduction
Background: Globally, the 20th century was marked by: (a) two
devastating world wars; (b) the Great Depression of the
1930s; (c) the end of vast colonial empires; (d) rapid
advances in science and technology, from the first
airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina (US) to
the landing on the moon; (e) the Cold War between the
Western alliance and the Warsaw Pact nations; (f) a
sharp rise in living standards in North America,
Europe, and Japan; (g) increased concerns about the
environment, including loss of forests, shortages of
energy and water, the decline in biological diversity,
and air pollution; (h) the onset of the AIDS epidemic;
and (i) the ultimate emergence of the US as the only
world superpower. The planet's population continues to
explode: from 1 billion in 1820, to 2 billion in 1930,
3 billion in 1960, 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in
1988, and 6 billion in 2000. For the 21st century, the
continued exponential growth in science and technology
raises both hopes (e.g., advances in medicine) and
fears (e.g., development of even more lethal weapons of
war).
Geography
Map Physical Map of the World, Political Map of the World,
references: Standard Time Zones of the World
Area: total: 510.072 million sq km
land: 148.94 million sq km
water: 361.132 million sq km
note: 70.8% of the world's surface is water, 29.2% is
land
Area - land area about 16 times the size of the US
comparative:
Land the land boundaries in the world total 250,708 km (not
boundaries: counting shared boundaries twice); two nations, China
and Russia, each border 14 other countries
note: 44 nations and other areas are landlocked, these
include: Afghanistan, Andorra, Armenia, Austria,
Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Burkina
Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Czech
Republic, Ethiopia, Holy See (Vatican City), Hungary,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lesotho, Liechtenstein,
Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malawi, Mali, Moldova, Mongolia,
Nepal, Niger, Paraguay, Rwanda, San Marino, Serbia,
Slovakia, Swaziland, Switzerland, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan, West Bank, Zambia,
Zimbabwe; two of these, Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan,
are doubly landlocked
Coastline: 356,000 km
note: 98 nations and other entities are islands that
border no other countries, they include: American
Samoa, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Ashmore
and Cartier Islands, The Bahamas, Bahrain, Baker
Island, Barbados, Bassas da India, Bermuda, Bouvet
Island, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin
Islands, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Christmas Island,
Clipperton Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Comoros,
Cook Islands, Coral Sea Islands, Cuba, Cyprus,
Dominica, Europa Island, Falkland Islands (Islas
Malvinas), Faroe Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia,
French Southern and Antarctic Lands, Glorioso Islands,
Greenland, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey, Heard Island and
McDonald Islands, Howland Island, Iceland, Isle of Man,
Jamaica, Jan Mayen, Japan, Jarvis Island, Jersey,
Johnston Atoll, Juan de Nova Island, Kingman Reef,
Kiribati, Madagascar, Maldives, Malta, Marshall
Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Federated
States of Micronesia, Midway Islands, Montserrat,
Nauru, Navassa Island, New Caledonia, New Zealand,
Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau,
Palmyra Atoll, Paracel Islands, Philippines, Pitcairn
Islands, Puerto Rico, Reunion, Saint Helena, Saint
Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and
Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sao
Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Singapore, Solomon
Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands,
Spratly Islands, Sri Lanka, Svalbard, Tokelau, Tonga,
Trinidad and Tobago, Tromelin Island, Turks and Caicos
Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Virgin Islands, Wake Island,
Wallis and Futuna, Taiwan
Maritime a variety of situations exist, but in general, most
claims: countries make the following claims measured from the
mean low-tide baseline as described in the 1982 UN
Convention on the Law of the Sea: territorial sea - 12
nm, contiguous zone - 24 nm, and exclusive economic
zone - 200 nm; additional zones provide for
exploitation of continental shelf resources and an
exclusive fishing zone; boundary situations with
neighboring states prevent many countries from
extending their fishing or economic zones to a full
200nm
Climate: a wide equatorial band of hot and humid tropical
climates - bordered north and south by subtropical
temperate zones - that separate two large areas of cold
and dry polar climates
Terrain: the greatest ocean depth is the Mariana Trench at
10,924 m in the Pacific Ocean
Elevation lowest point: Bentley Subglacial Trench -2,540 m
extremes: note: in the oceanic realm, Challenger Deep in the
Mariana Trench is the lowest point, lying -10,924 m
below the surface of the Pacific Ocean
highest point: Mount Everest 8,850 m
Natural the rapid depletion of nonrenewable mineral resources,
resources: the depletion of forest areas and wetlands, the
extinction of animal and plant species, and the
deterioration in air and water quality (especially in
Eastern Europe, the former USSR, and China) pose
serious long-term problems that governments and peoples
are only beginning to address
Land use: arable land: 13.31%
permanent crops: 4.71%
other: 81.98% (2005)
Irrigated 2,770,980 sq km (2003)
land:
Natural large areas subject to severe weather (tropical
hazards: cyclones), natural disasters (earthquakes, landslides,
tsunamis, volcanic eruptions)
Environment - large areas subject to overpopulation, industrial
current disasters, pollution (air, water, acid rain, toxic
issues: substances), loss of vegetation (overgrazing,
deforestation, desertification), loss of wildlife, soil
degradation, soil depletion, erosion
Geography - the world is now thought to be about 4.55 billion years
note: old, just about one-third of the 13-billion-year age
estimated for the universe
People
Population: 6,525,170,264 (July 2006 est.)
Age structure: 0-14 years: 27.4% (male 919,219,446/female 870,242,271)
15-64 years: 65.2% (male 2,152,066,888/female
2,100,334,722)
65 years and over: 7.4% (male 213,160,216/female
270,146,721)
note: some countries do not maintain age structure
information, thus a slight discrepancy exists between
the total world population and the total for world age
structure (2006 est.)
Median age: total: 27.6 years
male: 27 years
female: 28.2 years (2006 est.)
Population 1.14% (2006 est.)
growth rate:
Birth rate: 20.05 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Death rate: 8.67 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Sex ratio: at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)
Infant total: 48.87 deaths/1,000 live births
mortality male: 50.98 deaths/1,000 live births
rate: female: 46.65 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)
Life total population: 64.77 years
expectancy at male: 63.16 years
birth: female: 66.47 years (2006 est.)
Total 2.59 children born/woman (2006 est.)
fertility
rate:
HIV/AIDS - NA
adult
prevalence
rate:
HIV/AIDS - NA
people living
with HIV/AIDS:
HIV/AIDS - NA
deaths:
Religions: Christians 33.03% (of which Roman Catholics 17.33%,
Protestants 5.8%, Orthodox 3.42%, Anglicans 1.23%),
Muslims 20.12%, Hindus 13.34%, Buddhists 5.89%, Sikhs
0.39%, Jews 0.23%, other religions 12.61%,
non-religious 12.03%, atheists 2.36% (2004 est.)
Languages: Mandarin Chinese 13.69%, Spanish 5.05%, English 4.84%,
Hindi 2.82%, Portuguese 2.77%, Bengali 2.68%, Russian
2.27%, Japanese 1.99%, Standard German 1.49%, Wu
Chinese 1.21% (2004 est.)
note: percents are for "first language" speakers only
Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 82%
male: 87%
female: 77%
note: over two-thirds of the world's 785 million
illiterate adults are found in only eight countries
(India, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia,
Indonesia, and Egypt); of all the illiterate adults in
the world, two-thirds are women; extremely low literacy
rates are concentrated in three regions, South and West
Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Arab states, where
around one-third of the men and half of all women are
illiterate (2005 est.)
Government
Administrative 272 nations, dependent areas, and other entities
divisions:
Legal system: all members of the UN are parties to the statute that
established the International Court of Justice (ICJ) or
World Court
Economy
Economy - Global output rose by 4.4% in 2005, led by China
overview: (9.3%), India (7.6%), and Russia (5.9%). The other 14
successor nations of the USSR and the other old Warsaw
Pact nations again experienced widely divergent growth
rates; the three Baltic nations continued as strong
performers, in the 7% range of growth. Growth results
posted by the major industrial countries varied from no
gain for Italy to a strong gain by the United States
(3.5%). The developing nations also varied in their
growth results, with many countries facing population
increases that erode gains in output. Externally, the
nation-state, as a bedrock economic-political
institution, is steadily losing control over
international flows of people, goods, funds, and
technology. Internally, the central government often
finds its control over resources slipping as separatist
regional movements - typically based on ethnicity -
gain momentum, e.g., in many of the successor states of
the former Soviet Union, in the former Yugoslavia, in
India, in Iraq, in Indonesia, and in Canada.
Externally, the central government is losing
decisionmaking powers to international bodies, notably
the EU. In Western Europe, governments face the
difficult political problem of channeling resources
away from welfare programs in order to increase
investment and strengthen incentives to seek
employment. The addition of 80 million people each year
to an already overcrowded globe is exacerbating the
problems of pollution, desertification,
underemployment, epidemics, and famine. Because of
their own internal problems and priorities, the
industrialized countries devote insufficient resources
to deal effectively with the poorer areas of the world,
which, at least from an economic point of view, are
becoming further marginalized. The introduction of the
euro as the common currency of much of Western Europe
in January 1999, while paving the way for an integrated
economic powerhouse, poses economic risks because of
varying levels of income and cultural and political
differences among the participating nations. The
terrorist attacks on the US on 11 September 2001
accentuated a further growing risk to global
prosperity, illustrated, for example, by the
reallocation of resources away from investment to
anti-terrorist programs. The opening of war in March
2003 between a US-led coalition and Iraq added new
uncertainties to global economic prospects. After the
coalition victory, the complex political difficulties
and the high economic cost of establishing domestic
order in Iraq became major global problems that
continued into 2006.
GDP GWP (gross world product): $60.63 trillion (2005 est.)
(purchasing
power parity):
GDP (official $43.07 trillion (2005 est.)
exchange
rate):
GDP - real 4.7% (2005 est.)
growth rate:
GDP - per $9,500 (2005 est.)
capita (PPP):
GDP - agriculture: 4%
composition by industry: 32%
sector: services: 64% (2004 est.)
Labor force: 3.001 billion (2005 est.)
Labor force - agriculture: 42%
by occupation: industry: 21%
services: 37% (2002 est.)
Unemployment 30% combined unemployment and underemployment in many
rate: non-industrialized countries; developed countries
typically 4%-12% unemployment
Household lowest 10%: 2.6%
income or highest 10%: 29.4% (2000 est.)
consumption by
percentage
share:
Inflation rate developed countries 1% to 4% typically; developing
(consumer countries 5% to 20% typically; national inflation rates
prices): vary widely in individual cases, from declining prices
in Japan to hyperinflation in one Third World countries
(Zimbabwe); inflation rates have declined for most
countries for the last several years, held in check by
increasing international competition from several low
wage countries (2005 est.)
Industries: dominated by the onrush of technology, especially in
computers, robotics, telecommunications, and medicines
and medical equipment; most of these advances take
place in OECD nations; only a small portion of non-OECD
countries have succeeded in rapidly adjusting to these
technological forces; the accelerated development of
new industrial (and agricultural) technology is
complicating already grim environmental problems
Industrial 3% (2003 est.)
production
growth rate:
Electricity - 16.54 trillion kWh (2003 est.)
production:
Electricity - fossil fuel: NA
production by hydro: NA
source: nuclear: NA
other: NA
Electricity - 15.45 trillion kWh (2003 est.)
consumption:
Electricity - 537 billion kWh (2003)
exports:
Electricity - 545.2 billion kWh (2003)
imports:
Oil - 79.65 million bbl/day (2003 est.)
production:
Oil - 80.1 million bbl/day (2003 est.)
consumption:
Oil - proved 1.349 trillion bbl (1 January 2002 est.)
reserves:
Natural gas - 2.674 trillion cu m (2003 est.)
production:
Natural gas - 2.675 trillion cu m (2003 est.)
consumption:
Natural gas - 667.6 billion cu m (2001 est.)
exports:
Natural gas - 696 billion cu m (2001 est.)
imports:
Natural gas - 174.6 trillion cu m (1 January 2002)
proved
reserves:
Exports: $10.33 trillion f.o.b. (2004 est.)
Exports - the whole range of industrial and agricultural goods
commodities: and services
Exports - US 15.6%, Germany 7.4%, China 5.7%, France 4.9%, UK
partners: 4.7%, Japan 4.5% (2005)
Imports: $10.3 trillion f.o.b. (2004 est.)
Imports - the whole range of industrial and agricultural goods
commodities: and services
Imports - China 9.3%, US 9%, Germany 9%, Japan 6.1%, France 4.2%
partners: (2005)
Debt - $36.89 trillion
external: note: this figure is the sum total of all countries'
external debt, both public and private (2004 est.)
Economic aid - $154 billion official development assistance (ODA)
recipient: (2004)
Communications
Telephones - 1,263,367,600 (2005)
main lines in
use:
Telephones - 2,168,433,600 (2005)
mobile
cellular:
Telephone general assessment: NA
system: domestic: NA
international: NA
Radio AM NA, FM NA, shortwave NA
broadcast
stations:
Radios: NA
Television NA
broadcast
stations:
Televisions: NA
Internet 10,350 (2000 est.)
Service
Providers
(ISPs):
Internet 1,018,057,389 (2005)
users:
Transportation
Airports: 49,024 (2006)
Heliports: 2,021 (2006)
Railways: total: 1,115,205 km
broad gauge: 257,481 km
standard gauge: 671,413 km
narrow gauge: 186,311 km (2003)
Roadways: total: 32,345,165 km
paved: 19,403,061 km
unpaved: 12,942,104 km (2002)
Waterways: 671,886 km (2004)
Merchant total: 33,222 ships (1000 GRT or over) (2006)
marine:
Military
Military aggregate real expenditure on arms worldwide has
expenditures - increased in the beginning of the 21st century, with
dollar figure: the largest increase in the US; a rough estimate for
2005 is $1.2 trillion (at puchasing power parity) (2005
est.)
Military roughly 2% of gross world product (2005 est.)
expenditures -
percent of
GDP:
Transnational
Issues
Disputes - stretching over 250,000 km, the world's 329
international: international land boundaries separate the 193
independent states and 73 dependencies, areas of
special sovereignty, and other miscellaneous entities;
ethnicity, culture, race, religion, and language have
divided states into separate political entities as much
as history, physical terrain, political fiat, or
conquest, resulting in sometimes arbitrary and imposed
boundaries; maritime states have claimed limits and
have so far established over 130 maritime boundaries
and joint development zones to allocate ocean resources
and to provide for national security at sea; boundary,
borderland/resource, and territorial disputes vary in
intensity from managed or dormant to violent or
militarized; most disputes over the alignment of
political boundaries are confined to short segments and
are today less common and less hostile than borderland,
resource, and territorial disputes; undemarcated,
indefinite, porous, and unmanaged boundaries, however,
encourage illegal cross-border activities, uncontrolled
migration, and confrontation; territorial disputes may
evolve from historical and/or cultural claims, or they
may be brought on by resource competition; ethnic and
cultural clashes continue to be responsible for much of
the territorial fragmentation around the world;
disputes over islands at sea or in rivers frequently
form the source of territorial and boundary conflict;
other sources of contention include access to water and
mineral (especially petroleum) resources, fisheries,
and arable land; nonetheless, most nations cooperate to
clarify their international boundaries and to resolve
territorial and resource disputes peacefully; regional
discord today prevails not so much between the armed
forces of independent states as between stateless armed
entities that detract from the sustenance and welfare
of local populations, leaving the community of nations
to cope with resultant refugees, hunger, disease,
impoverishment, and environmental degradation
Refugees and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
internally (UNHCR) estimated that in December 2004 there was a
displaced global population of 9.2 million refugees, the lowest
persons: number in 25 years, and as many as 25 million IDPs in
over 49 countries (2005)
Trafficking in current situation: about 600,000 to 800,000 people,
persons: mostly women and children, are trafficked annually
across national borders, not including millions
trafficked within their own countries; at least 80% of
the victims are female; 75% of all victims are
trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation; roughly
two-thirds of the global victims are trafficked
intra-regionally within East Asia and the Pacific
(260,000 to 280,000 people) and Europe and Eurasia
(170,000 to 210,000 people)
Illicit drugs: cocaine: worldwide coca cultivation in 2004 amounted to
166,200 hectares; Colombia produced slightly more than
two-thirds of the worldwide crop, followed by Peru and
Bolivia; potential pure cocaine production of 645
metric tons in 2004 marked the lowest level of Andean
cocaine production in the past 10 years; Colombia
conducts aggressive coca eradication campaign, but both
Peruvian and Bolivian Governments are hesitant to
eradicate coca in key growing areas; 376 metric tons of
export-quality cocaine are documented to have been
seized in 2003, and 26 metric tons disrupted
(jettisoned or destroyed); consumption of export
quality cocaine is estimated to have been 800 metric
tons
opiates: worldwide illicit opium poppy cultivation
reached 258,630 hectares in 2004; potential opium
production of 5,444 metric tons was highest total
recorded since estimates began in mid-1980s;
Afghanistan is world's primary opium producer,
accounting for 91% of the global supply; Southeast Asia
- responsible for 7% of global opium - continued to
diminish in importance in the world opium market; Latin
America produced 2% of global opium, but most refined
into heroin destined for United States; if all opium
processed into pure heroin, the potential global
production would be 632 metric tons of heroin in 2004