World Reference Map and Information
For your convenience, this map and supplemental information have been modified and reformatted from the CIA World Factbook - available in the public domain.
World Map and Information
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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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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: 70.8% of the world's surface is water,
29.2% 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 250,708 km (not 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 |
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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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Population:
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6,602,224,175
(July 2007 est.) |
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Age structure:
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0-14
years: 27.4% (male 931,551,498/female 875,646,416)
15-64 years: 65.1% (male 2,174,605,518/female
2,124,494,703)
65 years and over: 7.5% (male
217,451,123/female 278,474,917) (2007 est.) |
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Median age:
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total:
28 years
male: 27.4 years
female: 28.7 years (2007 est.) |
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Population growth rate:
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1.167%
(2007 est.) |
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Birth rate:
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20.09
births/1,000 population (2007 est.) |
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Death rate:
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8.37
deaths/1,000 population (2007 est.) |
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Life expectancy at birth:
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total
population: 65.82 years
male: 63.89 years
female: 67.84 years (2007 est.) |
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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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265
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 (8.5%), and
Russia (7.4%). 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 (3.0%).
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): $65.82 trillion (2007 est.) |
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GDP (official exchange rate):
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$50.36
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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3.001
billion (2007 est.) |
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Labor force - by occupation:
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agriculture:
40.2%
industry: 20.8%
services: 39% (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%: 29.9% (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
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.) |
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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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18.01
trillion kWh (2005 est.) |
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Electricity - production by
source:
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fossil
fuel: NA
hydro: NA
nuclear: NA
other: NA |
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Electricity - consumption:
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16.56
trillion kWh (2005 est.) |
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Electricity - exports:
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619.8
billion kWh (2005) |
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Electricity - imports:
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639.5
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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1.297
trillion bbl (1 January 2006 est.) |
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Natural gas - production:
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2.833
trillion cu m (2005 est.) |
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Natural gas - consumption:
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3.004
trillion cu m (2005 est.) |
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Natural gas - exports:
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813.8
billion cu m (2005 est.) |
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Natural gas - imports:
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794.6
billion cu m (2005) |
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Natural gas - proved reserves:
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171
trillion cu m (1 January 2006 est.) |
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Exports:
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$13.72
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 |
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Exports - partners:
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US
15.1%, 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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$13.64
trillion f.o.b. (2006 est.) |
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Imports - partners:
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China
9.8%, Germany 8.8%, US 8.5%, Japan 5.6% (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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$54.26
trillion
note: this figure is the sum total of all
countries' external debt, both public and private (2004 est.) |
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Market value of publicly traded
shares:
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$43.64
trillion (2005) |
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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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Radios:
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NA
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Television broadcast stations:
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NA
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Televisions:
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NA
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Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
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10,350
(2000 est.) |
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Internet users:
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1,018,057,389
(2005) |
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Airports:
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49,024
(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
paved: 19,403,061 km
unpaved: 12,942,104 km (2002) |
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Waterways:
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671,886
km (2004) |
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Military expenditures - percent
of GDP:
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roughly
2% of gross world product (2005 est.) |
| Transnational Issues |
World |
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Disputes - international:
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stretching
over 250,000 km, the world's 319 international land boundaries separate
193 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:
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the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that in
December 2005 there was a global population of 8.4 million registered
refugees, the lowest number in 26 years, and as many as 23.7 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 (2006) |
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This page was last
updated on 24 January, 2008
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