NA

Televisions:

6,000 (1997)

Internet country code:

.eh

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):

1 (2000)

Internet users:

Transportation
Western Sahara

Airports:

9 (2007)

Airports - with paved runways:

total: 3 2,438 to 3,047 m: 3 (2007)

Airports - with unpaved runways:

total: 6 1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 914 to 1,523 m: 3 under 914 m: 2 (2007)

Ports and terminals:

Ad Dakhla, Cabo Bojador, Laayoune (El Aaiun)

Military
Western Sahara

Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:

male: 4,658 female: 4,545 (2008 est.)

Transnational Issues
Western Sahara

Disputes - international:

Morocco claims and administers Western Sahara, whose sovereignty remains unresolved; UN-administered cease-fire has remained in effect since September 1991, administered by the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), but attempts to hold a referendum have failed and parties thus far have rejected all brokered proposals; several states have extended diplomatic relations to the "Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic" represented by the Polisario Front in exile in Algeria, while others recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara; most of the approximately 102,000 Sahrawi refugees are sheltered in camps in Tindouf, Algeria

This page was last updated on 18 December, 2008

@World

Introduction
World

Background:

Globally, the 20th century was marked by: (a) two devastating world wars; (b) the Great Depression of the 1930s; (c) the end of vast colonial empires; (d) rapid advances in science and technology, from the first airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina (US) to the landing on the moon; (e) the Cold War between the Western alliance and the Warsaw Pact nations; (f) a sharp rise in living standards in North America, Europe, and Japan; (g) increased concerns about the environment, including loss of forests, shortages of energy and water, the decline in biological diversity, and air pollution; (h) the onset of the AIDS epidemic; and (i) the ultimate emergence of the US as the only world superpower. The planet's population continues to explode: from 1 billion in 1820, to 2 billion in 1930, 3 billion in 1960, 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1988, and 6 billion in 2000. For the 21st century, the continued exponential growth in science and technology raises both hopes (e.g., advances in medicine) and fears (e.g., development of even more lethal weapons of war).

Geography
World

Geographic overview:

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 of 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.

Map references:

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

Area:

total: 510.072 million sq km land: 148.94 million sq km water: 361.132 million sq km note: 70.9% of the world's surface is water, 29.1% is land

Area - comparative:

land area about 16 times the size of the US

Land boundaries:

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

Coastline:

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

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 200 nm

Climate:

a wide equatorial band of hot and humid tropical climates - bordered north and south by subtropical temperate zones - that separate two large areas of cold and dry polar climates

Terrain:

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

Elevation 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: 10.57% permanent crops: 1.04% other: 88.38% (2005)

Irrigated land:

2,770,980 sq km (2003)

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; global warming becoming a greater concern

Geography - note:

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

People
World

Population:

6,706,993,152 (July 2008 est.)

Age structure:

0-14 years: 27.3% (male 944,665,142/female 887,471,328) 15-64 years: 65.1% 65 years and over: 7.6% (male 222,808,372/female 284,647,297) (2008 est.)

Median age:

total: male: 27.4 years female: 28.7 years (2008 est.)

Population growth rate:

1.188% (2008 est.)

Birth rate:

20.18 births/1,000 population (2008 est.)

Death rate:

8.23 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.)

Sex ratio:

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.)

Infant mortality rate:

total: 42.09 deaths/1,000 live births male: 44.91 deaths/1,000 live births female: 39.09 deaths/1,000 live births (2008 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:

total population: 66.26 years male: 64.3 years female: 68.35 years (2008 est.)

Total fertility rate:

2.61 children born/woman (2008 est.)

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: