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Background:
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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). |
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Geographic overview:
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The surface of the earth is approximately 70.9% water and
29.1% land. The former portion is divided into large water
bodies termed oceans. The World Factbook recognizes and
describes five oceans, which are in decreasing order of
size: the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean,
Southern Ocean, and Arctic Ocean.
The land portion is generally divided into several, large,
discrete landmasses termed continents. Depending on the
convention used, the number of continents can vary from five
to seven. The most common classification recognizes seven,
which are (from largest to smallest): Asia, Africa, North
America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.
Asia and Europe are sometimes lumped together into a
Eurasian continent resulting in six continents.
Alternatively, North and South America are sometimes grouped
as simply the Americas, resulting in a continent total of
six (or five, if the Eurasia designation is used).
North America is commonly understood to include the island
of Greenland, the isles of the Caribbean, and to extend
south all the way to the Isthmus of Panama. The easternmost
extent of Europe is generally defined as being the Ural
Mountains and the Ural River; on the southeast the Caspian
Sea; and on the south the Caucasus Mountains, the Black Sea,
and the Mediterranean. Africa's northeast extremity is
frequently delimited at the Isthmus of Suez, but for
geopolitical purposes, the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula is often
included as part Africa. Asia usually incorporates all the
islands of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The
islands of the Pacific are often lumped with Australia into
a "land mass" termed Oceania or Australasia.
Although the above groupings are the most common, different
continental dispositions are recognized or taught in certain
parts of the world, with some arrangements more heavily
based on cultural spheres rather than physical geographic
considerations. |
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Map references:
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Physical Map of the World, Political Map of the World,
Standard Time Zones of the World
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Area:
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total: 510.072 million sq km
land: 148.94 million sq km
water: 361.132 million sq km
note: 70.9% of the world's surface is water, 29.1% is
land
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Area - comparative:
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land area about 16 times the size of the US
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Land boundaries:
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the land boundaries in the world total 251,060 km (not
counting shared boundaries twice); two nations, China and
Russia, each border 14 other countries
note: 45 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, Kosovo, 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 |
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Coastline:
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356,000 km
note: 94 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,
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, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Faroe
Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, French Southern and
Antarctic Lands, Greenland, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey, Heard
Island and McDonald Islands, Howland Island, Iceland, Isle
of Man, Jamaica, Jan Mayen, Japan, Jarvis Island, Jersey,
Johnston Atoll, 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 Barthelemy, 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, Turks
and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Virgin Islands, Wake
Island, Wallis and Futuna, Taiwan |
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Maritime claims:
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a variety of situations exist, but in general, most
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 200 nm
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Climate:
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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
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Terrain:
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the greatest ocean depth is the Mariana Trench at 10,924 m
in the Pacific Ocean
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Elevation extremes:
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lowest point: Bentley Subglacial Trench -2,540 m
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
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Natural resources:
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the rapid depletion of nonrenewable mineral 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 |
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Land use:
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arable land: 13.31%
permanent crops: 4.71%
other: 81.98% (2005)
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Irrigated land:
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2,770,980 sq km (2003)
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Natural hazards:
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large areas subject to severe weather (tropical cyclones),
natural disasters (earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis,
volcanic eruptions) |
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Environment - current issues:
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large areas subject to overpopulation, industrial disasters,
pollution (air, water, acid rain, toxic substances), loss of
vegetation (overgrazing, deforestation, desertification),
loss of wildlife, soil degradation, soil depletion, erosion;
global warming becoming a greater concern |
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Geography - note:
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the world is now thought to be about 4.55 billion years old,
just about one-third of the 13.7-billion-year age estimated
for the universe |
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Population:
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6,677,563,921 (July 2008 est.)
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Age structure:
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0-14 years: 27% (male 933,716,943/female 877,734,429)
15-64 years: 65% (male 2,205,342,972/female
2,153,959,605)
65 years and over: 8% (male 222,346,221/female
284,463,751) (2008 est.)
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Median age:
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total:
male: 27.4 years
female: 28.7 years (2008 est.)
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Population growth rate:
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1.159% (2008 est.)
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Birth rate:
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19.97 births/1,000 population (2008 est.)
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Death rate:
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8.32 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.)
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Sex ratio:
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at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.78 male(s)/female
total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2008 est.)
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Infant mortality rate:
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total: 42.64 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 45.42 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 39.67 deaths/1,000 live births (2008 est.)
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Life expectancy at birth:
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total population: 66.12 years
male: 64.18 years
female: 68.2 years (2008 est.)
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Total fertility rate:
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2.58 children born/woman (2008 est.)
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HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
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NA
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HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
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NA
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HIV/AIDS - deaths:
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NA
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Religions:
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Christians 33.32% (of which Roman Catholics 16.99%,
Protestants 5.78%, Orthodox 3.53%, Anglicans 1.25%), Muslims
21.01%, Hindus 13.26%, Buddhists 5.84%, Sikhs 0.35%, Jews
0.23%, Baha'is 0.12%, other religions 11.78%, non-religious
11.77%, atheists 2.32% (2007 est.) |
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Languages:
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Mandarin Chinese 13.22%, Spanish 4.88%, English 4.68%,
Arabic 3.12%, Hindi 2.74%, Portuguese 2.69%, Bengali 2.59%,
Russian 2.2%, Japanese 1.85%, Standard German 1.44%, Wu
Chinese 1.17% (2005 est.)
note: percents are for "first language" speakers only
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Literacy:
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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.) |
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Administrative divisions:
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266 nations, dependent areas, and other entities
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Legal system:
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all members of the UN are parties to the statute that
established the International Court of Justice (ICJ) or
World Court
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Economy - overview:
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Global output rose by 5.2% in 2007, led by China (11.4%),
India (9.2%), and Russia (8.1%). The 14 other 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 8%-10%
range of growth. From 2006 to 2007 growth rates slowed in
all the major industrial countries except for the United
Kingdom (3.1%). Analysts attribute the slowdown to
uncertainties in the financial markets and lowered consumer
confidence. Worldwide, nations varied widely in their growth
results. 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 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
initial coalition victory, the complex political
difficulties and the high economic cost of establishing
domestic order in Iraq became major global problems that
continued through 2007. |
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GDP (purchasing power parity):
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GWP (gross world product): $65.61 trillion (2007 est.)
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GDP (official exchange rate):
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GWP (gross world product): $54.62 trillion (2007 est.)
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GDP - real growth rate:
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5.2% (2007 est.)
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GDP - per capita (PPP):
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$10,000 (2007 est.)
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GDP - composition by sector:
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agriculture: 4%
industry: 32%
services: 64% (2007 est.)
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Labor force:
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3.131 billion (2007 est.)
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Labor force - by occupation:
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agriculture: 40.2%
industry: 20.5%
services: 39.3% (2007 est.)
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Unemployment rate:
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30% combined unemployment and underemployment in many
non-industrialized countries; developed countries typically
4%-12% unemployment (2007 est.) |
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Household income or consumption by percentage share:
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lowest 10%: 2.5%
highest 10%: 29.8% (2002 est.)
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Inflation rate (consumer prices):
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developed countries 1% to 4% typically; developing countries
5% to 20% typically; national inflation rates vary widely in
individual cases, from declining prices in Japan to
hyperinflation in one Third World country (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.) |
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Investment (gross fixed):
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22.7% of GDP (2007 est.)
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Industries:
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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 |
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Industrial production growth rate:
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5% (2007 est.)
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Electricity - production:
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18.58 trillion kWh (2005 est.)
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Electricity - consumption:
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16.83 trillion kWh (2005 est.)
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Electricity - exports:
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634.8 billion kWh (2005)
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Electricity - imports:
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620.5 billion kWh (2005)
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Oil - production:
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78.9 million bbl/day (2005 est.)
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Oil - consumption:
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80.29 million bbl/day (2005 est.)
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Oil - exports:
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63.76 million bbl/day (2004)
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Oil - imports:
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63.18 million bbl/day (2004)
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Oil - proved reserves:
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1.331 trillion bbl (1 January 2006 est.)
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Natural gas - production:
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2.854 trillion cu m (2005 est.)
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Natural gas - consumption:
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3 trillion cu m (2005 est.)
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Natural gas - exports:
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808 billion cu m (2005 est.)
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Natural gas - imports:
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786.5 billion cu m (2005)
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Natural gas - proved reserves:
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172 trillion cu m (1 January 2006 est.)
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Exports:
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$14.01 trillion f.o.b. (2006 est.)
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Exports - commodities:
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the whole range of industrial and agricultural goods and
services
top ten - share of world trade: electrical machinery,
including computers 14.8%; mineral fuels, including oil,
coal, gas, and refined products 14.4%; nuclear reactors,
boilers, and parts 14.2%; cars, trucks, and buses 8.9%;
scientific and precision instruments 3.5%; plastics 3.4%;
iron and steel 2.7%; organic chemicals 2.6%; pharmaceutical
products 2.6%; diamonds, pearls, and precious stones 1.9%
(2006 est.) |
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Exports - partners:
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US 15%, Germany 7.4%, China 5.9%, France 4.6%, UK 4.5%,
Japan 4.4% (2006)
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Imports:
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$13.91 trillion f.o.b. (2006 est.)
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Imports - commodities:
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the whole range of industrial and agricultural goods and
services
top ten - share of world trade: see listing for
exports
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Imports - partners:
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China 9.8%, Germany 8.8%, US 8.5%, Japan 5.6%, France 4%
(2006)
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Economic aid - recipient:
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ODA, $106.4 billion (2005)
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Debt - external:
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$53.97 trillion
note: this figure is the sum total of all countries'
external debt, both public and private (2004 est.)
|
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Stock of direct foreign investment - at home:
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World total DFI $14 trillion
top ten recipients of DFI: US $1.966 trillion; UK
$1.324 trillion; France $872.4 billion; Germany $811.0
billion; HK $780.4 billion; China $758.9 billion; Belgium
$703.9 billion; Netherlands $535.1 billion; Canada $527.4
billion; Spain $487.8 billion (year-end 2007 est.) |
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Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad:
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World total DFI $14 trillion
top ten sources of DFI: US $2.627 trillion; UK $1.741
trillion; France $1.211 trillion; Germany $1.123 trillion;
Netherlands $811.4 billion; HK $716.2 billion; Spain $613.9
billion; Switzerland $591.5 billion; Belgium $537.6 billion;
Japan $527.8 billion (year-end 2007 est.) |
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Market value of publicly traded shares:
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$43.64 trillion (2005 est.)
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Telephones - main lines in use:
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1,263,367,600 (2005)
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Telephones - mobile cellular:
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2,168,433,600 (2005)
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Telephone system:
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general assessment: NA
domestic: NA
international: NA
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Radio broadcast stations:
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AM NA, FM NA, shortwave NA
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Television broadcast stations:
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NA
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Internet users:
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1,018,057,389 (2005)
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Airports:
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total airports - 49,024
top ten by passengers: Atlanta - 84,846,639; Chicago
- 77,028,134; London - 67,530,197; Tokyo - 65,810,672; Los
Angeles - 61,041,066; Dallas/Fort Worth - 60,226,138; Paris
- 56,849,567; Frankfurt - 52,810,683; Beijing - 48,654,770;
Denver - 47,325,016
top ten by cargo (metric tons): Memphis - 3,692,081;
Hong Kong - 3,609,780; Anchorage - 2,691,395; Seoul -
2,336,572; Tokyo - 2,280,830; Shanghai - 2,168,122; Paris -
2,130,724; Frankfurt - 2,127,646; Louisville (US) -
1,983,032; Singapore - 1,931,881 (2006) |
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Heliports:
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1,359 (2007)
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Railways:
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total: 1,370,782 km (2006)
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Roadways:
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total: 32,345,165 km (2002)
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Waterways:
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671,886 km (2004)
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Ports and terminals:
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top ten container ports (TEUs): Singapore -
24,792,400; Hong Kong - 23,539,000; Shanghai - 21,710,000;
Shenzhen (China) - 18,468,890; Busan (South Korea) -
12,030,000; Kaohsiung (Taiwan) - 9,774,670; - Rotterdam -
9,603,000; Dubai (UAE) - 8,923,465; Hamburg - 8,861,545; Los
Angeles - 8,469,853 (2006) |
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Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
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roughly 2% of gross world product (2005 est.)
|
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Disputes - international:
|
stretching over 250,000 km, the world's 322 international
land boundaries separate 194 independent states and 70
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; most maritime states have claimed limits
that include territorial seas and exclusive economic zones;
overlapping limits due to adjacent or opposite coasts create
the potential for 430 bilateral maritime boundaries of which
209 have agreements that include contiguous and
non-contiguous segments; boundary, borderland/resource, and
territorial disputes vary in intensity from managed or
dormant to violent or militarized; undemarcated, indefinite,
porous, and unmanaged boundaries tend to 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 and internal displacement of the estimated 6.6
million people and cross-border displacements of 8.6 million
refugees around the world as of early 2006; just over one
million refugees were repatriated in the same period; other
sources of contention include access to water and mineral
(especially hydrocarbon) resources, fisheries, and arable
land; armed conflict prevails not so much between the
uniformed 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 |
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Refugees and internally displaced persons:
|
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
estimated that in December 2006 there was a global
population of 8.8 million registered refugees and as many as
24.5 million IDPs in more than 50 countries; the actual
global population of refugees is probably closer to 10
million given the estimated 1.5 million Iraqi refugees
displaced throughout the Middle East (2007) |
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Trafficking in persons:
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current situation: approximately 800,000 people,
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
and up to 50% are minors; 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)
Tier 2 Watch List: Albania, Argentina, Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African
Republic, Chad, China, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Cyprus,
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Egypt,
Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, The Gambia, Guatemala, Guinea,
Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, India, Jordan, Libya, Malaysia,
Montenegro, Mozambique, Niger, Panama, Republic of the
Congo, Russia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan,
Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Tier 3: Algeria, Burma, Cuba, Fiji, Iran, Kuwait,
Moldova, North Korea, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Qatar, Saudi
Arabia, Sudan, Syria (2008) |
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Illicit drugs:
|
cocaine: worldwide coca leaf cultivation in 2005
amounted to 208,500 hectares; Colombia produced slightly
more than two-thirds of the worldwide crop, followed by Peru
and Bolivia; potential pure cocaine production rose to 900
from 645 metric tons in 2005 - partially due to improved
methodologies used to calculate levels of production;
Colombia conducts aggressive coca eradication campaign, but
both Peruvian and Bolivian Governments are hesitant to
eradicate coca in key growing areas; 551 metric tons of
export-quality cocaine (85% pure) is documented to have been
seized or destroyed in 2005; US consumption of export
quality cocaine is estimated to have been in excess of 380
metric tons
opiates: worldwide illicit opium poppy cultivation
reached 208,500 hectares in 2005; potential opium production
of 4,990 metric tons was only a 9% decrease over 2004's
highest total recorded since estimates began in mid-1980s;
Afghanistan is world's primary opium producer, accounting
for 90% of the global supply; Southeast Asia - responsible
for 9% of global opium - saw marginal increases in
production; Latin America produced 1% of global opium, but
most was refined into heroin destined for the US market; if
all potential opium was processed into pure heroin, the
potential global production would be 577 metric tons of
heroin in 2005 |
This page was last updated on 19 June
2008
|
