CIA World Fact Book, 2004/World

!align="left" valign="middle" width="20%" height="31" style="background-color:#CCCCCC;color: #202122;;"|Introduction !align="left" valign="middle" width="80%" height="31" style="background-color:#CCCCCC;color: #202122;"|World
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!| 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).
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!align="left" valign="middle" width="20%" height="31" style="background-color:#CCCCCC;color: #202122;"|Geography !align="left" valign="middle" width="80%" height="31" style="background-color:#CCCCCC;color: #202122;"|World
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!| Map references: !| Area: water: 361.132 million sq km land: 148.94 million sq km note: 70.8% of the world's surface is water, 29.2% is land !| Area - comparative: !| Land boundaries: note: 43 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, Malawi, Mali, Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal, Niger, Paraguay, Rwanda, San Marino, Slovakia, Swaziland, Switzerland, Tajikistan, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan, West Bank, Zambia, Zimbabwe; two of these, Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan, are doubly landlocked !| Coastline: 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, Jamaica, Jan Mayen, Japan, Jarvis Island, Jersey, Johnston Atoll, Juan de Nova Island, Kingman Reef, Kiribati, Madagascar, Maldives, Malta, Isle of Man, 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 claims: !| Climate: !| Terrain: !| Elevation 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 (1999 est.) !| Natural resources: !| Land use: permanent crops: 1% other: 88.27% (2001) !| Irrigated land: !| Natural hazards: !| Environment - current issues: !| Geography - note:
 * Physical Map of the World, Political Map of the World, Standard Time Zones of the World
 * total: 510.072 million sq km
 * land area about 16 times the size of the US
 * the land boundaries in the world total 250,472 km (not counting shared boundaries twice); two nations, China and Russia, each border 14 other countries
 * 356,000 km
 * 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
 * two large areas of polar climates separated by two rather narrow temperate zones form a wide equatorial band of tropical to subtropical climates
 * the greatest ocean depth is the Mariana Trench at 10,924 m in the Pacific Ocean
 * lowest point: Bentley Subglacial Trench -2,540 m
 * 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
 * arable land: 10.73%
 * 2,714,320 sq km (1998 est.)
 * large areas subject to severe weather (tropical cyclones), natural disasters (earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions)
 * 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
 * the world is now thought to be about 4.55 billion years old, just about one-third of the 13-billion-year age estimated for the universe
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!align="left" valign="middle" width="20%" height="31" style="background-color:#CCCCCC;color: #202122;"|People !align="left" valign="middle" width="80%" height="31" style="background-color:#CCCCCC;color: #202122;"|World
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!| Population: !| Age structure: 15-64 years: 64.5% (male 2,083,789,165; female 2,033,226,759) 65 years and over: 7.2% (male 203,286,504; female 257,705,851) 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 (2004 est.) !| Population growth rate: !| Birth rate: !| Death rate: !| Sex ratio: 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 (2004 est.) !| Infant mortality rate: male: 52.17 deaths/1,000 live births female: 48.33 deaths/1,000 live births (2004 est.) !| Life expectancy at birth: male: 62.48 years female: 65.7 years (2004 est.) !| Total fertility rate: !| HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: !| HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: !| HIV/AIDS - deaths: !| Religions: !| Languages: note: percents are for "first language" speakers only !| Literacy: total population: 77% male: 83% female: 71% (1995 est.)
 * 6,379,157,361 (July 2004 est.)
 * 0-14 years: 28.2% (male 925,276,767; female 875,567,830)
 * 1.14% (2004 est.)
 * 20.24 births/1,000 population (2004 est.)
 * 8.86 deaths/1,000 population (2004 est.)
 * at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
 * total: 50.31 deaths/1,000 live births
 * total population: 64.05 years
 * 2.62 children born/woman (2004 est.)
 * NA
 * NA
 * NA
 * Christians 32.71% (of which Roman Catholics 17.28%, Protestants 5.61%, Orthodox 3.49%, Anglicans 1.31%), Muslims 19.67%, Hindus 13.28%, Buddhists 5.84%, Sikhs 0.38%, Jews 0.23%, other religions 13.05%, non-religious 12.43%, atheists 2.41% (2002 est.)
 * Chinese, Mandarin 14.37%, Hindi 6.02%, English 5.61%, Spanish 5.59%, Bengali 3.4%, Portuguese 2.63%, Russian 2.75%, Japanese 2.06%, German, Standard 1.64%, Korean 1.28%, French 1.27% (2000 est.)
 * definition: age 15 and over can read and write
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!align="left" valign="middle" width="20%" height="31" style="background-color:#CCCCCC;color: #202122;"|Government !align="left" valign="middle" width="80%" height="31" style="background-color:#CCCCCC;color: #202122;"|World
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!| Administrative divisions: !| Legal system:
 * 271 nations, dependent areas, and other entities
 * 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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!align="left" valign="middle" width="20%" height="31" style="background-color:#CCCCCC;color: #202122;"|Economy !align="left" valign="middle" width="80%" height="31" style="background-color:#CCCCCC;color: #202122;"|World
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!| Economy - overview: !| GDP: !| GDP - real growth rate: !| GDP - per capita: !| GDP - composition by sector: industry: 32% services: 64% (2004 est.) !| Household income or consumption by percentage share: highest 10%: NA !| Inflation rate (consumer prices): !| Labor force: !| Labor force - by occupation: !| Unemployment rate: !| Industries: !| Industrial production growth rate: !| Electricity - production: !| Electricity - consumption: !| Oil - production: !| Oil - consumption: !| Oil - proved reserves: !| Natural gas - production: !| Natural gas - consumption: !| Natural gas - exports: !| Natural gas - imports: !| Natural gas - proved reserves: !| Exports: !| Exports - commodities: !| Exports - partners: !| Imports: !| Imports - commodities: !| Imports - partners: !| Debt - external: !| Economic aid - recipient:
 * Global output rose by 3.7% in 2003, led by China (9.1%), India (7.6%), and Russia (7.3%). 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 5%-7% range of growth. Growth results posted by the major industrial countries varied from a loss by Germany (-0.1%) to a strong gain by the United States (3.1%). 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 decision-making powers to international bodies. 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 the 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 accentuate 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 continue into 2004.
 * GWP (gross world product) - purchasing power parity - $51.48 trillion (2003 est.)
 * 3.8% (2003 est.)
 * purchasing power parity - $8,200 (2003 est.)
 * agriculture: 4%
 * lowest 10%: NA
 * developed countries 1% to 4% typically; developing countries 5% to 60% typically; national inflation rates vary widely in individual cases, from declining prices in Japan to hyperinflation in several Third World countries (2003 est.)
 * NA
 * agriculture NA, industry NA, services NA
 * 30% combined unemployment and underemployment in many non-industrialized countries; developed countries typically 4%-12% unemployment
 * 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
 * 3% (2002 est.)
 * 14.93 trillion kWh (2001 est.)
 * 13.94 trillion kWh (2001 est.)
 * 75.34 million bbl/day (2001 est.)
 * 75.81 million bbl/day (2001 est.)
 * 1.025 trillion bbl (1 January 2002)
 * 2.578 trillion cu m (2001 est.)
 * 2.555 trillion cu m (2001 est.)
 * 712 billion cu m (2001 est.)
 * 697.5 billion cu m (2001 est.)
 * 161.2 trillion cu m (1 January 2002)
 * $6.421 trillion f.o.b. (2002 est.)
 * the whole range of industrial and agricultural goods and services
 * US 16.4%, Germany 7.9%, UK 5.2%, France 5.1%, China 5%, Japan 4.6% (2003)
 * $6.531 trillion f.o.b. (2002 est.)
 * the whole range of industrial and agricultural goods and services
 * US 9.9%, Germany 9.4%, China 7.9%, Japan 6.7%, France 4.7% (2003)
 * $2 trillion for less developed countries (2002 est.)
 * official development assistance (ODA) $50 billion
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!align="left" valign="middle" width="20%" height="31" style="background-color:#CCCCCC;color: #202122;"|Communications !align="left" valign="middle" width="80%" height="31" style="background-color:#CCCCCC;color: #202122;"|World
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!| Telephones - main lines in use: !| Telephones - mobile cellular: !| Telephone system: domestic: NA international: NA !| Radio broadcast stations: !| Radios: !| Television broadcast stations: !| Televisions: !| Internet Service Providers (ISPs): !| Internet users:
 * 843,923,500 (2003)
 * NA
 * general assessment: NA
 * AM NA, FM NA, shortwave NA
 * NA
 * NA
 * NA
 * 10,350 (2000 est.)
 * 604,111,719 (2002 est.)
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!align="left" valign="middle" width="20%" height="31" style="background-color:#CCCCCC;color: #202122;"|Transportation !align="left" valign="middle" width="80%" height="31" style="background-color:#CCCCCC;color: #202122;"|World
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!| Railways: broad gauge: 257,481 km narrow gauge: 186,311 km (2003) standard gauge: 671,413 km !| Highways: paved: NA km unpaved: NA km !| Ports and harbors:
 * total: 1,115,205 km
 * total: NA km
 * Chiba, Houston, Kawasaki, Kobe, Marseille, Mina' al Ahmadi (Kuwait), New Orleans, New York, Rotterdam, Yokohama
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!align="left" valign="middle" width="20%" height="31" style="background-color:#CCCCCC;color: #202122;"|Military !align="left" valign="middle" width="80%" height="31" style="background-color:#CCCCCC;color: #202122;"|World
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!| Military expenditures - dollar figure: !| Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
 * aggregate real expenditure on arms worldwide in 1999 remained at approximately the 1998 level, about three-quarters of a trillion dollars (1999 est.)
 * roughly 2% of gross world product (1999 est.)
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