World

§1. 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).

§2. World Geography

Map references:
  Physical Map of the World, Political Map of the World, Standard Time Zones
  of the World

Area:
  total: 510.072 million km²
  land: 148.94 million km²
  water: 361.132 million km²
  note: 70.8% of the world's surface is water, 29.2% is land

Area - comparative:
  land area about 16 times the size of the US

Land boundaries:
  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
  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, Macedonia, Malawi,
    Mali, Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal, Niger, Paraguay, Rwanda, San Marino,
    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 claims:
  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 200nm

Climate:
  two large areas of polar climates separated by two rather narrow temperate
  zones form a wide equatorial band of tropical to subtropical climates

Terrain:
  the greatest ocean depth is the Mariana Trench at 10,924 m in the Pacific
  Ocean

Elevation extremes:
  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

Natural resources:
  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

Land use:
  arable land: 13.31%
  permanent crops: 4.71%
  other: 81.98% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  2,714,320 km² (1998 est.)

Natural hazards:
  large areas subject to severe weather (tropical cyclones), natural
  disasters (earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions)

Environment - current issues:
  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

Geography - note:
  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

§3. World 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) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 27.6 years
  male: 27 years
  female: 28.2 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.14% (2006 est.)

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 mortality rate:
  total: 48.87 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 50.98 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 46.65 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 64.77 years
  male: 63.16 years
  female: 66.47 years (2006 est.)

Total fertility rate:
  2.59 children born/woman (2006 est.)

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  NA

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

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.)

§4. World Government

Administrative divisions:
  271 nations, dependent areas, and other entities

Legal system:
  all members of the UN are parties to the statute that established the
  International Court of Justice (ICJ) or World Court

§5. World Economy

Economy - overview:
  Global output rose by 4.4% in 2005, led by China (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 European Union.
  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 75
  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 through 2005.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  GWP (gross world product) - purchasing power parity - $59.59 trillion (2005
  est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $43.92 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  4.4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $9,300 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 4%
  industry: 32%
  services: 64% (2004 est.)

Labor force:
  3.001 billion (2005)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture 42%, industry 21%, services 37% (2002 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  30% combined unemployment and underemployment in many non-industrialized
  countries; developed countries typically 4%- 12% unemployment

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 1.1%
  highest 10%: 37.4% (2000 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  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.)

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 production growth rate:
  3% (2003 est.)

Electricity - production:
  16.5 trillion kWh (2003 est.)

Electricity - consumption:
  15.45 trillion kWh (2003 est.)

Electricity - exports:
  525 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  534 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  79.65 million bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  80.1 million bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - proved reserves:
  1.349 trillion bbl (1 January 2002 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  2.674 trillion m³ (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  2.746 trillion m³ (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  667.6 billion m³ (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  696 billion m³ (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  174.6 trillion m³ (1 January 2002)

Exports:
  $10.32 trillion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  the whole range of industrial and agricultural goods and services

Exports - partners:
  US 15.7%, Germany 7.7%, China 5.4%, France 5.1%, UK 5.1%, Japan 4.5% (2004)

Imports:
  $10.27 trillion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  the whole range of industrial and agricultural goods and services

Imports - partners:
  Germany 9.4%, US 9.3%, China 8.5%, Japan 6.5%, France 4.5% (2004)

Debt - external:
  $38.54 trillion
  note: this figure is the sum total of all countries' external debt, both
    public and private (2004 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $154 billion official development assistance (ODA) (2004)

§6. World Communications

Telephones - main lines in use:
  1,206,315,500 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1,752,183,600 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: NA

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM NA, FM NA, shortwave NA

Television broadcast stations:
  NA

Internet users:
  1,018,057,389 (2005)

§7. World Transportation

Airports:
  49,973 (2005)

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)

§8. World Military

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  aggregate real expenditure on arms worldwide in 1999 remained at
  approximately the 1998 level, about three-quarters of a trillion dollars
  (1999 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  roughly 2% of gross world product (1999 est.)

§9. World Transnational Issues

Disputes - international:
  stretching over 250,000 km, the world's 325 international land boundaries
  separate the 192 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 internally displaced persons:
  the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that in
  December 2004 there was a global population of 9.2 million refugees, the
  lowest number in 25 years, and as many as 25 million IDPs in over 49
  countries (2005)

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


<Factbook 2006>
